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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.

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List of Q&A's

Use of ECAIs' ratings for risk-weighting purposes under Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013, as last modified by Regulation (EU) 2024/1623 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 May 2024 ("CRR")

The question is concerned with the following specific case: in connection with a specific private financing, a credit institution requests a rating for a certain entity which is among the credit institution’s customers and:  the rating is issued by an ECAI (as defined under art. 4(1)(98) CRR); the relevant ECAI is covered by the EBA's Mapping of ECAIs’ credit assessments under art. 136 CRR; the rating, being not requested by (or on behalf of) the rated entity/issuer and/or a related third party and is classified "unsolicited" and EBA's Decision 2021/397 (confirming that unsolicited credit assessments of certain ECAIs do not differ in quality from their solicited credit assessments under art 138 CRR - EBA/DC/2021/397) applies to the relevant ECAI; the rating follows the same published methodologies – and is based on the same set of information – as public ratings and this is expressly confirmed by the relevant ECAI; the rating, although private, is not subject to any contractual restrictions preventing the ECAI from issuing the same rating to third parties or, where applicable, on publication or distribution; namely, the ECAI, ceteris paribus, can issue the same rating to any other credit institution upon request, ensuring that the output is made available to all requesting entities on an equal basis.  Within this context, we seek confirmation that the unsolicited and private rating issued by the ECAI, in the case under consideration, can be used by the credit institution under the CRR for attributing risk weights in the standardized approach.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2025_7416
  • Topic: External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAI)
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as Rejected Q&A: 09/10/2025

High Income OECD countries and High Income Euro Area countries as defined in the OECD

High Income OECD countries and High Income Euro Area countries as defined in the OECD (currently e.g. USA, UK, Germany, Luxembourg, Canada, Finland, etc.) receive since early 2013 no longer a country risk classification, due to their high solvency, tax income as well as tax possibilities etc. As a consequence, it is not possible to derive a risk weight according to article 137 (2) CRR without using any appropriate mechanism for determining the corresponding country risk classification. Can it be assumed, that High Income OECD countries and High Income Euro Area countries which are supposed to be even “better” than country risk classification 0 can be treated under Article 137 with an MEIP being equal to 0?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_760
  • Topic: External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAI)
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 23/05/2014

Applicable mappings before entry into force of ITS on Articles 136(1) and 270

What mappings will be applicable between the first date of application of Regulation No. 575/2013 (i.e. 1 January 2014) and the entry into force of the ITS on Articles 136(1) and 270?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_737
  • Topic: External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAI)
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 25/04/2014

Substitution of ratings for CRMT purposes

For the instruments listed in Article 197 of Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 (CRR), is it possible to use the issuer rating in order to derive eligibility (and haircuts) where no specific instrument rating exists (“substitution”)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_679
  • Topic: External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAI)
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 03/10/2014

Use of ECAI credit assessments for the determination of risk weights

In Article 138 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) it says that an institution may choose one or more ECAIs to derive risk weights for asset classes. Is there a possibility for institutions not to choose any ECAI at all for the exposure class ‘exposures to Institutions’, and solely rely on the Sovereign Method for the exposure class stated in Article 121? If not, is it possible to choose only one ECAI and use Sovereign Method for all the unrated exposures (i.e. unrated by your chosen ECAI)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_550
  • Topic: External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAI)
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 03/07/2015