Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its fifth report of the Basel III monitoring exercise on the European banking system. This exercise, run in parallel with the one conducted by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) at a global level, allowed to gather aggregate results on capital, Risk Weighted Assets (RWAs), liquidity and leverage ratios for banks in the European Union (EU).

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a report on the leverage ratio which provides a policy analysis and a quantitative assessment of the impact that would derive from aligning the current Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) definitions of the leverage ratio's exposure measure to the revised standard published by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) on 12 January 2014 (‘Basel III’). The EBA has produced the report on its own initiative to provide recommendations to the European Commission in view of its forthcoming delegated act on the definitions of leverage ratio.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its annual report on consumer trends which provides an overview of the consumer protection analysis carried out by the EBA.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) have today published the results of their joint review of the Euribor-EBF. The review found that Euribor-EBF has made significant progress in implementing the ESMA-EBA Recommendations addressing weaknesses and shortcomings in its governance and technical framework. This progress provides the basis for improved transparency of the benchmark-setting process, enhanced governance of the benchmark, and improved quality of the resulting index.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on classes of instruments that can be used for the purposes of variable remuneration. These RTS are part of the Single Rulebook aimed at enhancing regulatory harmonisation in the banking sector in the European Union.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a discussion paper on the impact on the volatility of own funds of the revised International Accounting Standard for employee benefits (IAS 19) and the deduction of defined benefit pension assets from own funds in accordance with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) . The input gathered from this discussion paper will assist or inform the EBA in the preparation of its report to the European Commission on this topic. The consultation runs until 14 April 2014.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today the risk dashboard for Q4 2013, summarising the main risks and vulnerabilities in the banking sector in the European Union (EU). The dashboard looks at the evolution of Key Risk Indicators (KRI) from 55 banks across the EU in the third quarter of 2013.

The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA - ESAs) published today its final Report on mechanistic references to credit ratings in the ESAs’ guidelines and recommendations and on the definition of “sole and mechanistic reliance” on such ratings.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) announced today the key components of the forthcoming 2014 EU-wide stress test that will be conducted on a wide sample of EU banks. The objective of the EU-wide stress tests is to help supervisors assess the resilience of financial institutions in the European Union to adverse market developments. This exercise aims at ensuring consistency and comparability of the outcomes across all banks based on a common methodology, scenarios and accompanied by a consistent disclosure exercise.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a Recommendation on the use of unique identification codes for supervisory purposes for every credit and financial institution in the European Union. This Recommendation is a major step forward in harmonizing the identification of legal entities, in line with proposals by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) endorsed by the G20, to ensure consistent and comparable data.

The three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) sent a joint letter to the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Mr Michael Barnier, on the Philippe Maystadt report “Should IFRS standards be more European?” in order to share their concerns on potential implications of this report.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) issues today an Opinion addressed to National Supervisory Authorities (NSAs) on Good Practices for the Risk Management of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).

Mrs. Kerstin af Jochnick, Chair of the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), speaks on Supervision in Europe at the Euro Finace Week, Frankfurt

On 10 January 2014, the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities handed down its decision on an appeal by the appellant, Global Private Rating Company “Standard Rating” Ltd, against the refusal by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to register it as a credit rating agency. This is the first appeal against a decision by ESMA refusing an applicant registration as a credit rating agency.

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued today a warning on a series of risks deriving from buying, holding or trading virtual currencies such as Bitcoins. The EBA said that consumers are not protected through regulation when using virtual currencies as a means of payment and may be at risk of losing their money. It also added that there is no guarantee that currency values remain stable The warning was issued while the Authority assesses further all relevant aspects associated with virtual currencies, in order to identify whether virtual currencies can and should be regulated and supervised.</p>