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Disclaimer:

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.

List of Q&A's

Stand By Credit Facilities as Liquid Assets

In Article 416(1) of Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 states: “Institutions shall report the following as liquid assets unless excluded by paragraph 2 and only if the liquid assets fulfil the conditions in paragraph 3: … e) standby credit facilities granted by central banks within the scope of monetary policy to the extent that these facilities are not collateralised by liquid assets and excluding emergency liquidity assistance;” Which real world examples exist for standby credit facilities, which are not collateralized by liquid assets, but at the same time fulfil the prerequisite of paragraph 3? Would the unused amount for potential ECB tender transactions which are not collateralised by liquid assets, as defined in the CRR, qualify for a standby credit facility?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Conditions taken into account to use the factor 0,7619

Should an institution stop using the factor 0.7619 as soon as the amount owed to the SME enterprise exceeds 1.5m EUR?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Eligibility of CET 1 in case of an agreement for transfer of profit and coverage of losses

As a requirement for Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) instruments with regard to distributions, the conditions governing the instruments may not include any obligation for the institution to make distributions to their holders and the institution is not otherwise subject to such an obligation (Article 28 (1)( h) (v) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)). Is a contract with the 100% mother company of an institution according to which distributable profits of the subsidiary need to be fully distributed to the mother company at the end of each year and losses of the subsidiary are to be compensated in full by the mother company to be regarded as an obligation hindering eligibility of the instrument as CET1?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Large Exposures - clients to CCPs

May a client relying on Article 305(2) to calculate own funds requirements for its trade exposures for CCP-related transactions with its clearing member in accordance with Article 306, rely on the exemption in Article 400 as regards such CCP-related transactions? Legal Reference: Article 295(1), 400, 305 and 306

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Outflows on other liabilities for Operational Accounts (Basel para 93 -104)

a. CRR in addition to clearing, custody and cash management CRR considers “other comparable services” eligible for a 5% run off. Are correspondent banking and prime brokerage services included in the definition? b. How does one prove that the client is unable to withdraw without compromising client’s operational functioning over a 30 day horizon? c. How often do you need to check if an account is meeting the criteria for operational accounts?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Treatment of cash collateral

What is the treatment in LCR and NSFR of cash collateral given or received in derivative transactions?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Repurchase and cancellation of Tier 2 in the open market less than 5 years from issue

Can you please confirm if Article 78(4) is meant to apply only to the redemption of T2 securities within 5 years of issuance (as specified in the terms and conditions of the instrument), or if it also prohibits the use of liability management exercises to repurchase (and cancellation) T2 notes at market levels within 5 years of the issuance.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Value adjustments for prudent valuation (Additional Value Adjustments)

Article 34 of Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 (CRR) requires institutions to apply a deduction from CET1 the amount of any additional value adjustments on all assets measured at fair value calculated in accordance with Article 105. Article 105(14) of the CRR specifies that the EBA shall submit draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 28 July 2013 (as per CRR corrigendum published on 2 August 2013). In this regard the EBA published a draft consultation paper (EBA/CP/2013/28) whereby it is specified that "as a consequence of the EBA decision to conduct a QIS, the EBA currently envisages to finalise the technical standard in Q2 2014". Therefore it is not clear as concerns the first reporting date on Q12014 whether institutions must: 1) not apply the prudential filter (i.e. the relative reporting item shall be valued zero) until the publication of the final EBA RTS 2) calculate the prudential filter in accordance with the Basel II framework (i.e. requirements for prudent valuation defined by each local regulator) 3) calculate the prudential filter in accordance with the draft EBA standards as defined in consultation paper EBA/CP/2013/28

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Calculation of capital requirements for SME under Article 501 of CRR

How should the capital requirements be calculated for SME exposures according to Article 501 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)? In essence we are asking if the risk weighted assets for qualifying SMEs should be reduced or only the capital requirements for qualifying SMEs.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Requirement to establish a risk/audit committee

Article 76(3), first paragraph, requires significant institutions to establish a risk committee. According to the fourth subparagraph, "competent authorities may allow an institution which is not considered significant as referred to in the first subparagraph to combine the risk committee with the audit committee as referred to in Article 41 of Directive 2006/43/EC." Does this mean that all institutions in the EU are required to establish at least a joint risk and audit committee?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Additional value adjustments

According to the Article 34 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), institutions shall apply the requirements of Article 105 to all their assets measured at fair value when calculating the amount of their own funds and shall deduct from Common Equity Tier 1 capital the amount of any additional value adjustments necessary. Does the provision “to all their assets measured at fair value” mean that this Article concerns all trading book positions or this Article concerns all trading and banking book positions?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Reporting of the 10 largest exposures to institutions and the 10 largest exposures to unregulated financial institutions

The issue is that the term and definitions for "institution" and "unregulated financial entity" are not complementary and thus could cover the same counterparts. Could EBA confirm that they don't want to have the same entities reported in the 2 groups ("institutions" and "unregulated financial entities") and clarify both terms?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Firm shorts covered by client longs

We assume that an outflow should be reflected under Article 423 (4) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) for any firm short currently covered using a client long position, unless the residual term of the borrowing of the client stock used to cover the short is contractually committed beyond 30 days.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Netting within cash pooling agreement used as part of cash management products

Where customers have both assets and liability balances within a cash pooling agreement (supported by a credit netting agreement) can the balance within the cash pooling agreement be treated as either a single net asset (Article 425) or a net liability (Article 420) i.e. not treated gross?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Treatment of Deliverable FX for single Currency Returns under 422 (6) and 425 (3)

When completing single currency returns can all deliverable FX flows occuring withing 30 days in that currency be netted down to one single FX flow reported as either an inflow 425 (3) or an outflow 422 (6), otherwise the 75% inflow cap will apply to FX activity under single currency reports, but will not apply under the all currency combined reports.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Evidence that a client is unable to withdraw amounts legally due over a 30 day period without compromising its operational functioning

With regards to both: • deposits in the context of Clearing, Custody and Cash Management, Article 422(3)(a) and (d) Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), • deposits in the context of an established operational relationship Article 422(3)(c) (recognising the definition of an established operational relationship here is pending from the EBA), what type of 'evidence' are institutions required to demonstrate (Article 422(4)) and how conclusive does this evidence need to be for the deposit to be considered eligible? Also, with regard to Article 422(3)(c), it would appear from Article 509(2)(k) that established operational relationships will only be seen with non-financial corporates. Can you confirm if this is the case?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Definition of a large exposure

Please can you confirm if the large exposure threshold for reporting is 10% of eligible capital as mentioned in Article 392 or €300m?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Unrealised Gains and Losses

Under to Article 467 and 468 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), what is the appropriate level of aggregation with respect to unrealised gains or losses at which the percentages have to be applied respectively? Please indicate the appropriate level of application.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Grandfathering of own funds instruments

Will old style Tier 2 issuances without a reference to the proposals for a Directive Establishing a Framework for the Recovery and Resolution of Credit Institutions and Investment Firms / Point of Non-viability (PON) fully qualify upon entry into force of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

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