Press releases

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) approved on 10 January 2019 the content of the Multilateral Agreement on the practical modalities for exchange of information between the European Central Bank (ECB) and all competent authorities (CAs) responsible for supervising compliance of credit and financial institutions with anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) obligations under the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4). The Agreement will create a clear framework for exchanging information between the ECB and CAs and potentially will enhance the effectiveness of their supervisory practices.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a report on the costs and performance of structured deposits in the European Union (EU). The report is a response to a request the EBA had received from the EU Commission as part of the implementation of it Capital Market Union Action Plan and concludes that the market for structured deposits in the EU appears to be limited in size and that data on costs and performance is not widely available. The report, therefore, also sets out the steps the EBA will take to enhance the data quality in the future.

<p>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 previous findings, with the majority of risk-weights (RWs) variability explained by fundamentals. These benchmarking exercises, conducted by the EBA on an annual basis are a fundamental supervisory and convergence tool to address unwarranted inconsistencies and restoring trust in internal models.</p>

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the results of its assessment of the applicability and suitability of EU law to crypto-assets. Typically, crypto-asset activities do not constitute regulated services within the scope of EU banking, payments and electronic money law, and risks exist for consumers that are not addressed at the EU level. Crypto-asset activities may also give rise to other risks, including money laundering. In light of these issues, the EBA recommends that the European Commission carry out further analysis to determine the appropriate EU-level response. The EBA also identifies a number of actions that it will take in 2019 to enhance the monitoring of financial institutions’ crypto-asset activities and consumer-facing disclosure practices.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its Risk Dashboard, which summarises the main risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector using quantitative risk indicators. Together with the Risk Dashboard, the EBA published the results of its Risk Assessment Questionnaire, which includes the opinions of banks and market analysts on the risk outlook collected in autumn 2018. In the third quarter (Q3) of 2018, the Dashboard confirms improvements in both asset quality and capital ratios, while profitability remains subdued.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published today a joint report on innovation facilitators (regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs). The report sets out a comparative analysis of the innovation facilitators established to date within the EU. The ESAs also set out best practices for the design and operation of innovation facilitators.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) updated today its Recommendation on the equivalence of confidentiality and professional secrecy regimes by adding three non-EU (third country) supervisory authorities to the current list of third country supervisory authorities whose confidentiality regimes can be regarded as equivalent. The EBA Recommendation is designed as a guide for EU authorities in their assessment of third country equivalence with the aim of facilitating cooperation with third country supervisory authorities and their participation in supervisory colleges overseeing international banks.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have today issued a consultation paper on targeted amendments to the Delegated Regulation covering the rules for the Key Information Document (KID) for Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a response to a letter it had received from a law firm regarding the case of a reclassification by an institution of some specific grandfathered own funds instruments. The EBA also addressed this issue through its Q&A process. In particular, Q&A 2018_4417 (Own funds - Reclassification of own funds instruments from a grandfathered category to a fully eligible category and purpose of grandfathering provision ), clarifies in more general terms the appropriate prudential treatment for such cases.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today some initial observations on the post-implementation impact of IFRS 9 on EU banks. This exercise, which builds on the two pre-implementation impact assessments published in November 2016 and July 2017, is mainly based on data extracted from institutions’ supervisory reporting. The initial observations from this exercise are consistent with the forecasts of the second EBA impact assessment report. The report also identifies some areas for ongoing scrutiny and further work from an EBA perspective.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published today two joint draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) to amend the RTS on the clearing obligation and risk mitigation techniques for non-cleared OTC derivatives. These standards provide a specific treatment for simple, transparent and standardised (STS) securitisation to ensure a level playing field with covered bonds. They are required for the proper implementation of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and will amend the current regulation on the clearing obligation and risk mitigation techniques on OTC derivatives not cleared by central counterparties (CCPs).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) launched today a consultation to amend the Commission’s Implementing Regulation on benchmarking of internal models to adjust the benchmarking portfolios and reporting requirements in view of the benchmarking exercise it will carry out in 2020. The proposed changes aim at simplifying the portfolio’s structure for the credit risk part of the exercise, and getting more insights into the model used for pricing for the market risk part of the exercise. The consultation will run until 1 February 2019.

As a follow up to its June 2018 Opinion on financial institutions' preparedness for the UK withdrawal from the EU, the European Banking Authority (EBA) today reminds affected financial institutions to maintain their efforts in effective contingency planning and to increase their efforts in communicating to customers. The EBA urges such institutions to take its Opinion into careful consideration and to swiftly proceed with advising customers on the specific implications stemming from the UK withdrawal from the EU.

In its meeting on 12 December 2018, the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority (EBA) decided to carry out its next EU-wide stress test in 2020, in line with its previous decision to aim for a biennial exercise. The EBA will start immediately to prepare the methodology for the 2020 stress test exercise. This decision has been communicated to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. In 2019, the EBA will perform its regular annual transparency exercise.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its final Guidelines on disclosure of non- performing and forborne exposures. The disclosure will allow market participants and stakeholders to have a better picture of the quality of the banks’ assets, the main features of their non-performing and forborne exposures, and in the case of more troubled banks, the distribution of the problematic assets and the value of the collateral backing those assets.