Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a new benchmarking report on diversity practices in credit institutions and investment firms analysing the development since its 2015 diversity benchmarking exercise. Based on data as of September 2018, still many institutions, 41.61% out of 834, have not adopted a diversity policy. The representation of women in management bodies is still relatively low and many institutions do not have a gender diverse board. The EBA calls on institutions and Member States to consider additional measures for promoting a more balanced representation of both genders and on competent authorities to ensure institutions’ compliance with the requirement to adopt diversity policies.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today the 2020 EU-wide stress test, the fifth exercise since its establishment, and released the macroeconomic scenarios. The adverse scenario follows for the first time a ‘lower for longer’ narrative, a recession coupled with low or negative interest rates for a prolonged period. The EU real GDP would decline by 4.3% cumulatively by 2022, resulting in the most severe scenario to date. The EBA expects to publish the results of the exercise by 31 July 2020.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today two Reports on the consistency of risk weighted assets (RWAs) across all EU institutions authorised to use internal approaches for the calculation of capital requirements. The reports cover credit risk for high and low default portfolios (LDPs and HDPs), as well as market risk. The results confirm that the majority of risk-weights (RWs) variability can be explained by fundamentals. These benchmarking exercises are a fundamental supervisory and convergence tool to address unwarranted inconsistencies and restoring trust in internal models.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) acknowledged today the EU Commission’s decision to consider the supervisory and regulatory framework applicable to credit institutions in Serbia and South Korea as equivalent to that applied in the Union. The Commission’s decision follows the EBA’s assessment of non-EU countries' equivalence with the EU prudential supervision and regulatory requirements. In its Opinion, in November 2018, the EBA concluded that the supervisory and regulatory framework applicable to credit institutions in Serbia and South Korea can be regarded as equivalent to that applied in the Union.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today an amendment to its 2018 guidelines on fraud reporting under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The changes reflect some consequential amendments to the reporting templates under the guidelines as a result of clarifications provided more recently by the European Commission on the application of strong customer authentication (SCA) to certain type of transactions.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on possible future changes to the EU-wide stress test. This discussion paper aims to present the EBA’s vision of the future of the EU-wide stress test and to collect comments and feedback from the different users. “The framework we are proposing today aims at making the EU-wide stress test more informative, flexible, and cost-effective, said the EBA Chairperson, Jose Manuel Campa, in launching the consultation. Campa added, “It is the first time we embark on a comprehensive discussion on the future of EU stress testing and we are keen to receive feedback from a wide range of stakeholders”. The consultation runs until 30 April 2020.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Report on the application by Competent Authorities (CAs) of the EBA regulatory technical standards (RTS) on the criteria to identify categories of staff whose professional activities have a material impact on an institution’s risk profile. This Peer Review shows that, within the European Economic Area (EEA), CAs have applied properly the RTS during the reference period from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017.

The Board of Supervisors (BoS) of the European Banking Authority (EBA) nominated yesterday Gerry Cross as the new Executive Director of the Authority. Gerry Cross was selected from a shortlist of candidates compiled by the EBA Selection Committee.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Report on the recent trends of BD&AA in the banking sector and on the key considerations in the development, implementation and adoption of BD&AA. The aim of this assessment is to share knowledge among the stakeholders and, in particular, to ensure regulators and supervisors are well informed on the developments, in an effort to support technological neutrality across the regulatory and supervisory approaches. The need for necessary competence is becoming increasingly important, raising an important challenge for institutions, supervisors and regulators. Training and development, as well as closer engagement between the relevant stakeholders, could be an appropriate starting point for addressing this challenge.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Risk Dashboard and the results of the Risk Assessment Questionnaire (RAQ). While the capital position of EU banks remained strong and asset quality improved further, profitability contracted in Q3 2019, with a negative outlook from both banks and analysts.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a public consultation on its draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the criteria to identify all categories of staff whose professional activities have a material impact on the institutions’ risk profile (“risk takers”). The aim of these standards is to define and harmonise the criteria for the identification of such staff and to ensure a consistent approach across the EU. The suggested identification process is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative criteria. The consultation runs until 19 February 2020.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an updated list of capital instruments that Competent Authorities (CAs) across the European Union (EU) have classified as Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1). Since the publication of the previous update in July 2019, a new CET1 instrument has been assessed and evaluated as compliant with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The list will be maintained and updated on a regular basis.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the Standardised Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk (SA-CCR). These draft RTS specify key aspects of the SA-CCR and represent an important contribution to its smooth harmonised implementation in the EU. The RTS are part of the mandates assigned to the EBA within its important role in implementing the SA-CCR and Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) frameworks in the EU.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Report on undue short-term pressures from the financial sector on corporations, which presents its analysis on the extent to which short-termism is present in the banking sector. This assessment responds to a call for advice from the European Commission as part of its Action Plan “Financing Sustainable Growth” and will inform on policy actions that could be taken to ensure that long-term perspectives are adequately considered in the financial sector.