Single Rulebook Q&A | European Banking Authority

Stakeholders can submit questions on the practical application or implementation of the banking, payment services, AML/CFT and other legislation that falls within the EBA’s remit. This includes the associated delegated and implementing acts, RTS, ITS, guidelines and recommendations.

List of Legal acts included in the Tool

NB: Unless otherwise specified in Q&As, references to the above legal acts are to be understood as referring to the version of the legal act applicable at the Q&A’s date of publication.

Questions on legal acts referred to under Article 1 (2) of the EBA’s founding Regulation or within the scope of the EBA’s powers that are not listed here can be submitted choosing the ‘Other’ option in the ‘Legal Act’ field of the ‘Submit a question’ page.

Q&As on legislation of relevance to more than one ESA can be accessed under https://www.eba.europa.eu/about-us/organisation/joint-committee/q-and-s

Important note to users:

The questions submitted should focus on provisions that are already applicable. For questions on issues whose application date lies in the future, the EBA may defer the processing of the questions to a later stage. The processing of questions and the response time may also depend on the overall number of questions that will be received on the amended texts.

General information

The Q&A process entails close and ongoing interaction between the EBA, the European Commission and competent authorities to ensure that the responses to the questions submitted remain consistent with the European legislative texts.

Any natural or legal person, including competent authorities and Union institutions and bodies can use the Single Rulebook Q&A tool for submitting questions on the legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2) of the EBA’s founding Regulation and their associated Delegated and Implementing Acts, RTS, ITS, Guidelines, or Recommendations.

Questions should relate to the practical application or implementation of provisions of the relevant legislative act and/or associated delegated or implementing acts, RTS, ITS, guidelines, or recommendations. They should be as short and concise as possible. Hypothetical (what if) questions should be avoided. Questions that require the interpretation of these legal instruments will be forwarded to the European Commission who will prepare answers.

Article 16(b)(2) of the EBA’s founding regulation states that answers to Q&As have no binding force in law. Further, Q&As are not subject to a "comply or explain" process. However, their application is scrutinised by the EBA and competent authorities given their practical significance to achieve a level playing field. Peer pressure and market discipline also play a driving force in ensuring adherence to and compliance with the answers provided in the Q&A process.

In February 2022 the EBA adjusted its Single Rulebook Q&A process, including the admissibility criteria. The EBA aims to respond to Q&As within 9 months, focusing the process on answering those Q&As which raise material issues relevant for a broad set of stakeholders where additional EBA guidance or clarification would add real value. Where this period is unlikely to be met, the submitter will be informed and additional steps taken to ensure prompt finalisation.

As part of the adjustments, final answers will now be published on Friday mornings - except if this coincides with an EBA public holiday. In this instance, answers will be published on the preceding working day.

Before posting a question, users should read the revised Additional background and guidance for asking questions.

Features of the Q&A tool

Users should take a note of the following points in particular (some of which reflect changes stemming from the EBA founding Regulation):

In accordance with Article 16b (3) of the EBA founding Regulation, all questions under review are to be published on the EBA’s website ‘unless such publication is in conflict with the legitimate interest of those persons or would involve risks to the stability of the financial system’.
Rejected questions are published for a period of at least 2 months, to facilitate illustrating the types of questions that are not suitable. Questions are rejected when requirements set out in the Additional background and guidance for asking questions are not met.
The Q&A pages are organised in a way that encourages users to use the 'Search for Q&As' function and to refer to the guidance mentioned above before submitting any questions.

A compilation (in pdf format) of all final Q&As, or subsets, can be obtained via the 'Search for Q&As' function. For additional information, please refer to point 21 of the Additional background and guidance for asking questions

In February 2022 the EBA adjusted its Single Rulebook Q&A process to ensure that questions are answered within a reasonable time. The admissibility criteria have been adjusted to prioritise Q&As that: are relevant to a broad set of stakeholders; concern a material matter from a prudential, payments, consumer protection, resolution or other perspective within the EBA’s remit; and need EBA guidance or clarification. For further information see ‘Press Release’.

In 2021 the EBA completed a review of the final published CRR-CRD and BRRD Q&As against the revised versions of those legislative acts following the amendments introduced in June 2019, which led to changes for many Q&As that were reflected in the tool. For further information see the ‘Search for Q&As’ section, or ‘Overview of Q&As reviewed against revised CRR CRD and BRRD’.

Documents

Links

Interactive Single Rulebook

Submit a question Search for Q&As

Please note: From 25.5.2021 you need a user account in order to submit a Q&A.

When following 'Submit a question', you will be asked to enter your login details, if you already have an account, or you can create one as ‘public user’ (or as an ‘extranet user’, in case you work for an EEA competent authority or an observer organisation in the EBA).