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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.

List of Q&A's

Calculation of the SME supporting factor for off-balance-sheet exposures

Is the SME supporting factor applicable, and if so, how shall it be computed, in case there is no on-balance-sheet exposure to be included in E*, as defined in Article 501(1) of CRR?

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

AIRB combined with Financial Collateral Comprehensive Method

Article 223 para 4 subpara (b) indicates that banks using the A-IRB approach can also utilize the Financial Collateral Comprehensive Method (FCCM). Does the EBA agree with this?  

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

Exclusion of back-to-back positions from RRAO

Under the provision of Art. 325u(4)(c) CRR, how should perfectly offsetting positions be treated in different constellations (concretely, the instruments comprising the two offsetting positions can have either a ‘one-to-one (1:1)’ relationship or a ‘many-to-many (m:n)’ relationship) in terms of excluding them from the own funds requirements for residual risks?

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

Disclosure of liquidity requirements - NSFR - LIQ2. Periodic data to be disclosed in the Disclosure Period

Further to the publication of the P3DH Framework, we would like to clarify the expectation around the periodic data to be disclosed within the Disclosure Period, relating to the NSFR LIQ2 template. As part of the Taxonomy 4.1 Release and the publication of the associated 'Annotated Tables', it is apparent that firms will be required to disclose 4-quarters worth of data, so 'T', 'T-1', 'T-2' and 'T-3'. At present, it is apparent that firms across the EU have interpreted the CRR in different ways when reviewing their Pillar 3 Disclosures for this template. For example, for year-end related disclosures we are observing a combination of : a) a 'spot' year-end position; b) a year-on-year comparison or c) a quarter-on-quarter comparison across Financial Institutions. The CRR guidance states the following:  3.   Institutions shall disclose the following information in relation to their net stable funding ratio as calculated in accordance with Title IV of Part Six:(a) quarter-end figures of their net stable funding ratio calculated in accordance with Chapter 2 of Title IV of Part Six for each quarter of the relevant disclosure period; We take this to mean the 'quarter-end' periods within the current disclosure year, rather than a 'rolling' quarter-end view. Note that when we refer to a 'rolling' quarter view, for example when disclosing at HY (half-year) 2024, this would include Q3 and Q4 from 2023, together with Q1 and Q2 from 2024.

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

Clarification on column a) "Total exposures", CR7-A Template

Could you please confirm that the coloumn a) "Total exposures" of CR7-A template should be filled with outstanding amount post application of credit conversion factor without taking into account any substitution effects due to the existence of a guarantee  in accordance with Articles 166 to 167 CRR, in case the exposure covered by only unfunded credit protection (guarantees)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2021/637 - ITS with regard to disclosures of information referred to in Titles II and III of Part Eight CRR

Exposures to institutions waived from individual capital requirements according to article 7 CRR, under Credi Risk Standarised Approach

How should exposures to institutions be treated under Credi Risk Standarised Approach, if such institutions have been waived of individual capital requirements? Shall these exposures be assigned to grade C, or can the level of compliance with capital requirements be assessed by taking consolidated requirements as reference?

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

Eligibility as collateral under article 207(2) of secured notes designed specifically to remove any material positive correlation between the value of the note and the credit quality of its issuer.

Entity A issues a secured note designed specifically to remove any material positive correlation between the value of the note and the credit quality of its issuer (entity A). The note is secured by assets uncorrelated to entity A. In legal structure I, entity A deposits the assets with a third-party custodian trust account, pledged to the note holders.  In a variant legal structure II, entity A sells the assets to a SPV, which has been setup by entity A for that sole purpose; the SPV then issues a guarantee to the noteholders, backed by the assets it holds. Bank B enters into a reverse repo with entity A, where it lends cash to entity A and receives the secured note as collateral. From bank B’s perspective, does such secured note qualify as eligible collateral under CRR article 207(2) when: the secured note is secured by the assets held in a third party custodian trust account, pledged to the noteholders (legal structure I)? the secured note is guaranteed by a SPV holding the assets (variant legal structure II)?

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

Sources for external classification that is commonly used in the market for grouping issuers by sector, for the purpose of CRR Article 325ah.

Can lists produced by competent authorities be also seen as meeting the requirement in Article 325ah(2.) (e.g. commonly used market classification)?

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

ESG P3 - Template 1 - Reporting of column k (GHG emissions (column i): gross carrying amount percentage of the portfolio derived from company-specific reporting)

In Template 1, “column k (GHG emissions (column i): gross carrying amount percentage of the portfolio derived from company-specific reporting)”,  could you please clarify how the percentage should be calculated in the total column (56)? In the interest of precision and clarity, it is essential to determine whether the total percentage should be calculated over the total gross carrying amount of the template or only take into account the exposures that contribute significantly to climate change and replicate the same percentage that appears in row 1. This determination is crucial as only emissions from sectors that contribute substantially to climate change should be reported. Example: Exposure Gross Carrying Amount Gross Carrying Amount of the portfolio with derived from company-specific reporting Highly contributing sectors exposure 100 25 Non-highly contributing sectors exposure 200 Not disclosed Total exposure 300 25 The denominator of the row 56 i.e. gross carrying amount used in the calculation of the percentage for column k will be based on 100 or 300? Final result should be: 25% of the portfolio has emissions derived from company-specific reporting 8% of the portfolio has emissions derived from company-specific reporting

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2022/2453 - ITS on ESG disclosures

Definition of Net defined benefit assets [Carrying amount] in F44.01

Please can we clarify what is required in row 0090 of FINREP template F44.01 in terms of the "Net defined benefit assets" ? i.e. should this row only include surplus amounts that shall be recognised in the balance sheet given that the previous sign validation rule v3985_s has now been deactivated?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2024/3117 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions

Treatment of bridge financing in the calculation of the risk weight (RW*)

As the objective of Article 132c (1) CRR, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/876 – CRR2, is to “calculate the risk-weighted exposure amount for their off-balance-sheet items with the potential to be converted into exposures (…)”, should the calculation of RW* actually exclude short-term liabilities (e.g. bridge financing)? 

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

ASF factors for Additional Tier 1 items as wells as Tier 2 items and other capital instruments maturing between 6 month and 1 year

For the purpose of calculating the NSFR, which appropriate available stable funding factor shall institutions apply for Additional Tier 1 items as well as Tier 2 items and other capital instruments maturing between 6 month and 1 year?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2021/451 – ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Authentication process of the PSU with the ASPSP in a combined AIS and PIS journey in a redirection approach

Consider an ASPSP that offers a dedicated interface using a redirection approach. To fulfill the requirement that PSUs using a PIS should not have to enter their own account details, the ASPSP allows TPPs that have an AIS license to retrieve the list of all the PSU’s payment accounts via the interface so that the account can be selected in the TPP’s domain.  Does the ASPSP create an obstacle in the sense of Article 32(3) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389 if  it forces a PSU who is initiating a payment through a PISP without entering the own IBAN to perform full SCA twice while a PSU who initiates a payment through the ASPSP’s customer interface needs to perform full SCA only once, while the second authentication requires entering only one element of SCA?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

the use of strong and widely recognized encryption techniques

All strong and widely recognized encryption techniques (e.g. RSA and ECC) currently available on the market must be provided by the account servicing payment service providers or only that encryption technique which is indicated in the documentation of the technical specification of the API in accordance with Article 30(3) of the RTS on SCA & CSC shall be provided?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

SCA exception for Contactless only terminals (SoftPOS) in case of emergency

We are in the process of developing a backup solution for our SoftPOS terminal application, intended for use during exceptional circumstances such as cyber-attacks or other disruptions to internet connectivity and acquirer systems. As SoftPOS terminals operate exclusively with contactless transactions, and contactless transactions does not support Offline PIN, it is technically not possible to perform Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in offline mode. We would like to confirm whether, under these conditions, it is acceptable to process offline contactless transactions without applying SCA and follow Directive (EU) 2015/2366 article 0 (15)

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Minimum monetary amount of professional indemnity insurance in ongoing supervision

Are points 5.4, 5.7, 5.10 and 7.4 of EBA/GL/2017/08 guideline applicable only while applying for authorisation or in ongoing supervision as well? Is 50 000 per indicator minimal amount after authorisation procedure/first year as well?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2017/08 - Guidelines on the criteria on how to stipulate the minimum monetary amount of the professional indemnity insurance

Reporting of COREP_OF C10.00 template

Are credit institutions that apply the Standardized Approach (SA) for credit risk and the Internal Model Method (IMM) for counterparty credit risk, in order to calculate exposure amounts of SA exposures, required to report template C10.00 row 0270 (Memo item)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Draft ITS on Supervisory Reporting of Institutions

Instructions for Row 0080 COREP template C 07.00

Should contractual arrangements that meet all of the conditions set out in Article 5, points (10)(a) to (e) of the CRR, be reported in the row 0800 of the template C 07.00?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Draft ITS on Supervisory Reporting of Institutions

Passporting procedure for non-CI ART issuers

Shall NCAs consider that articles 18, 21, 25 and 109 of MICA regulation set a specific passporting framework for “pure” ART issuers where: ART issuers are authorized to market tokens in Member States they declared during the authorization process as soon as they are authorized by home NCAs; within two working days of granting authorization, home NCAs only have to inform host national competent authorities, ESMA, EBA, ECB and competent national central bank of the Member States of the member states where ART issuers intend to market their token ; this information regarding passporting of ART issuers is publicly available on ESMA register? 

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 2023/1114 (MiCAR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Knowledge element of SCA.

Can an API key be considered as a Knowledge element of SCA?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication