To increase transparency within the European Single market, the European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes on a regular basis a list of credit institutions to which authorisation has been granted to operate within the European Union and European Economic Area countries (EEA). The list published by the EBA is set up solely on the basis of information provided by competent authorities, as foreseen in the EBA Decision establishing the Credit Institution Register.
As underlined in the Directive 2013/36/EU on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms, the so-called CRD, in connection with Article 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013 of 15 October 2013, the granting of licences to credit institutions remains under the remit of the competent national authority/ECB.
Some of the Information regarding the requirements for authorisation to take up and pursue the business of credit institutions can be found on the European Commission's website.
The register only includes credit institutions classified in three different types:
For detailed information about credit institutions conducting business in EEA Member States please consult the EBA Credit Institution Register.
The present Register has been set up by the EBA solely on the basis of information provided by Member States. Therefore, unlike registers of credit institutions maintained at national level, this Register has no legal significance and confers no rights in law. If an unauthorised institution is inadvertently included in the Register, its legal status is in no way altered; similarly, if an institution has inadvertently been omitted from the Register, the validity of its authorisation will not be affected.
With regard to entries in the column headed 'Legal form', which are, by their very nature, in most cases untranslatable, it should be pointed out that terminological similarities are not to be taken to indicate that the legal status is the same. With regard to entries in the column headed 'Deposit Guarantee Scheme', it should also be pointed out that the fact that a credit institution is covered by a particular deposit guarantee scheme does not necessarily imply that all types or amounts of deposits are eligible for compensation under the scheme. This will depend on the rules applicable to the deposit guarantee scheme, as set out in Directive 2014/49/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 April 2014 on deposit guarantee schemes, OJ L 173/149 of 12.6.2014, and the national rules that have implemented this Directive.
The European Banking Authority is responsible only for the accurate reproduction of the information received on individual credit institutions, while responsibility for the respective sections of the Register, and especially the spelling of the name and location of the institutions, their classification in a given group, trademarks held by the institution and in general the accuracy of its content, lies with the competent authorities at national level.
Each national supervisory authority publishes on a regular basis a register of authorised credit institutions at national level. Information on national registers may be more detailed and/or more up-to-date.