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Q&As refer to the provisions in force on the day of their publication. The EBA does not systematically review published Q&As following the amendment of legislative acts. Users of the Q&A tool should therefore check the date of publication of the Q&A and whether the provisions referred to in the answer remain the same.

Please note that the Q&As related to the supervisory benchmarking exercises have been moved to the dedicated handbook page. You can submit Q&As on this topic here.

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List of Q&A's

Retention bonuses

Is a “retention bonus”, i.e. a bonus solely granted for staying with a credit institution for a pre-defined time, still admissible in the light of remuneration principle Article 94(1)(e) of Directive 2013/36/EU (replacing Annex V, Section 11, point 23 (j) of Directive 2006/48/EC (CRDIII))?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_10
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Synthetic holdings

We are considering own regulatory capital instruments which are put in pledge to the issuing bank itself as collateral for loans to customers.1) Do banks have to deduct those pledged own regulatory capital instruments under Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) although the related loans are not granted for the purchase of these instruments (i.e. no direct funding), potentially as a synthetic holding (Article 4 (1) (126) of CRR?2) Do such pledged regulatory capital instruments still meet the “fully paid up”-criterion as per  (Article 28 (1)(b)) of CRR?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_9
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 31/10/2013

Direct / indirect funding of own shares

According to In Articles 8 and 93 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 (the draft RTS on Own Funds), what is the amount to be deducted / not to be considered eligible. If a subscription/acquisition of the institution's shares has been financed by it, what should be the impact and by which amount? There are two possibilities:A) The amount of the funding/loan granted is to be deducted from CET1 items (irrespective of the current accounting value of the shares acquired).B) The "# of shares subscribed/acquired" times the "per share accounting amount of total equity" is not to be given recognition as a positive item of CET1In case the instruments are not given recognition, what is the amount not to give recognition:A) Amount of the funding given to buy the shares (at the market value); or,B) Corresponding accounting amount of the shares bought (which is different from A if the book value is different from the market capitalization of the institution)?Example:An institution issues capital at par, i.e., book value per share = 100 and market value per share = 100.The share drops in price and is now valued at 80 (new market price). However, this market devaluation does not have a correspondence in the accounting value which remains at 100.The institution finances a customer to buy 2 shares, so finances with 160.Questions1) Should the institution not recognize as a positive item: 160 (funding given to buy the 2 shares) or 200 (accounting value of the 2 shares whose purchase was financed by the institution)2) In the example the credit to the issuer is higher than the stock financed and the share increases in value. What amount has to be considered?3) In the example above, there is collateral posted. What amount has to be considered? Does the treatment change depending on whether the collateral is junior or senior to the delivery of the own shares?4) In the example above, there is impairment associated with the funding provided (though this one is broadly covered in the article). What is the treatment when the funding provided is higher than the share bought)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_8
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 31/10/2013

Scope of the institutions subject to the data collection

This Q&A deals with the scope of application for the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (3) of Directive 2013/36/EU specified by EBA Guidelines on the Data Collection Exercise Regarding High Earners (EBA/GL/2012/5 of 27 July 2012). Should data also be collected from EEA Branches of non-EEA institutions?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_7
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Definition of amounts to be reported

This Q&A deals with the definition of amounts to be reported for the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (1) of Directive 2013/36/EU as set out by templates in annexes I and II of the EBA Guidelines on the Remuneration Benchmarking Exercise (EBA/GL/2014/08 of 16 July 2014 EBA/GL/2012/4 of 27 July 2012). Some clarifications have been asked how to fill in certain fields of the Annex regarding: (a) Field: "total variable remuneration": (b) Field: "total amount of variable remuneration deferred in year N": (c) Field: "amount of explicit ex post performance adjustment applied in year N for remuneration awarded in previous years":

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_6
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Definition of retail and investment banking for information collection

This Q&A clarifies the definition of retail and investment banking for the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (1) of Directive 2013/36/EU as set out in the Templates of Annexes I and II of the EBA Guidelines on the Remuneration Benchmarking Exercise (EBA/GL/2014/08 of 16 July 2014). It is not clear if wholesale lending should be included in retail lending or in the investment banking business. Could you specify more the activities included in the investment banking business area? 

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_5
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Frequency of reporting, submission dates, reference year for information collection

This Q&A deals with the currency exchange rates of the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (1) of Directive 2013/36/EU specified by paragraph 5 of the EBA Guidelines on the Remuneration Benchmarking Exercise (EBA/GL/2012/4 of 27 July 2012). What currency is to be used for bonuses paid during the year of submission of the information and are monthly currency exchange rates applicable for the conversion?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_4
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Frequency of reporting, submission dates, reference year for information collection

This Q&A deals with the reference year of the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (1) of Directive 2013/36/EU specified by paragraph 5.5 of the EBA Guidelines on the Remuneration Benchmarking Exercise (EBA/GL/2014/08 of 16 July 2014). How should “accounting year end numbers” be interpreted in the context of bonuses (as variable remuneration) paid during the year of submission of the information for performance during the preceding year?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_3
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Scope of consolidation of information collection

This Q&A deals with the scope of consolidation for the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (1) of Directive 2013/36/EU specified by the EBA Guidelines on the Remuneration Benchmarking Exercise (EBA/GL/2014/08 of 16 July 2014) (EBA/GL/2012/4 of 27 July 2012). According to paragraph 3 of the EBA Guidelines institutions should provide data at the highest level of consolidation as set out in Directive 2006/48/EC (replaced by Directive 2013/36/EU). Shall data be provided only for bank and investment firms, including branches and subsidiaries which are banks and investment firms, or for all entities, for example, leasing companies, included in the scope of consolidation at bank level? 

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_2
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission:

Scope of institutions subject to the data collection

This Q&A deals with the scope of the institutions subject to the information collection foreseen by Article 75 (1) of Directive 2013/36/EU are specified by the EBA Guidelines on the Remuneration Benchmarking Exercise (EBA/GL/2012/4 of 27 July 2012). According to paragraph 2.1 of the EBA Guidelines the list of institutions to participate in the exercise, should be selected applying one of the two criteria (a) the institutions should represent 60% of the total banking sector or (b) by selecting the 20 largest institutions from the banking sector. Regardless of the chosen criteria the list will comprise institutions that have parent banks and whose data will be reported on a consolidated level by the home authority. This can lead to situations where data for institutions within one member state are only provided within the data for a banking group and no national benchmark can be calculated. Which data shall be provided to EBA?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_1
  • Topic: Remuneration
  • Date of submission: