Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a response to a letter received from the European Commission (EC) regarding an EBA Opinion on the intention by Eesti Pank, the Estonian Central Bank, to introduce stricter national measures for credit institutions in Estonia using the Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approach, in accordance with Article 458 of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). In its Opinion, the EBA had concluded that the evidence presented by Eesti Pank was not sufficient to support the suitability and appropriateness of the suggested measure. In the letter received by the Commission, the EBA was asked to either revise or confirm its Opinion following the submission of additional information by Eesti Pank. In its reply, the EBA assessed that there were not sufficient grounds to change its initial Opinion.

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an Opinion on the use of eIDAS certificates under the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on Strong Customer Authentication and Common and Secure Communication (SCA&amp;CSC). In the Opinion, the EBA clarifies specific aspects on the use of qualified certificates for electronic seals (QSealCs) and qualified certificates for website authentication (QWACs) for the purpose of identification of payment service providers (PSPs) under the RTS, the content of these certificates, and the process for their revocation.</p>

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an Opinion following the notification by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) of its intention to extend a measure introduced in 2017 regarding the use of Article 458 of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). The measure is primarily driven by persistent macroprudential risks in the Finnish economy related to residential mortgage loans and residential mortgage indebtedness. Based on the evidence submitted, the EBA does not object to the extension of the proposed measure, which will be applied from 1 January to 31 December 2020.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today clarifications to a fourth set of issues that had been raised by participants of its Working Group (WG) on APIs under PSD2. The clarifications respond to issues raised on the confirmation of payment execution, biometrics and authentication on mobile apps, access to non-payment account information, stress testing, qualified eIDAS certificates for Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs), the 4 times per day access by Account Initiation Service Providers (AISPs), and the Sharing of payment account number with Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs).

The EBA published today an Opinion on the link between money laundering and terrorist financing concerns and prudential objectives. This Opinion forms part of the EBA's ongoing work to strengthen the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in Europe and responds to a request in the Council Anti Money Laundering Action Plan of 2018.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its IFRS 9 roadmap providing a comprehensive overview of planned monitoring activities on IFRS 9 implementation. The EBA also launched an IFRS 9 benchmarking exercise on a sample of institutions aimed at analysing the different modelling practices followed by institutions and how IFRS 9 implementation impacts the amount of expected credit losses in terms of own funds and regulatory ratios.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an updated list of Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) instruments of EU institutions. This list is accompanied by an updated CET1 Report, which includes information on the underlying objectives of the monitoring as well as on the consequences of including or excluding instruments in or from the CET1 list. The EBA's monitoring of capital instruments contributes to the enhancement of the quality of institutions' capital across the EU. The EBA will continue to update the Report on a regular basis to give account of new developments in CET1 issuances and practices.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today the findings of its analysis on the regulatory framework applicable to FinTech firms when accessing the market. The Report illustrates the developments on the regulatory perimeter across the EU, the regulatory status of FinTech firms, and the approaches followed by competent authorities when granting authorisation for banking and payment services.

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today an update to its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on benchmarking of internal approaches. The ITS include all benchmarking portfolios that will be used for the 2020 benchmarking exercise.</p>

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today amendments to the Implementing Technical standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting with regard to FINREP. The amendments concern the reporting requirements on non-performing exposures (NPE) and forbearance to allow monitoring of reporting institutions’ NPE strategies, the reporting requirements on profit and loss items and the implementation of the new International Financial Reporting Standard on leases (IFRS 16).

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its first Report on the monitoring of liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) implementation in the EU. The EBA’s monitoring of the LCR contributes to a consistent application of EU law and promotes common supervisory approaches and practices in this area. The EBA intends to regularly monitor the implementation of the LCR for EU banks and update this Report on an ongoing basis to set out its observations and provide further guidance, where necessary.</p>

The European Banking Authority welcomed today’s publication by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) of a special Report on the EU-wide stress test titled “EU-wide stress tests for banks: unparalleled amount of information on banks provided but greater coordination and focus on risks needed”. The EBA acknowledged the efforts made by the ECA in providing valuable insights to improve the efficiency of the EU-wide stress test in the future.

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a progress report on the roadmap set out in 2016 to repair internal models used to calculate own funds requirements for credit risk under the Internal Ratings Based (IRB) approach. The roadmap aims to address the concerns about undue variability of own funds requirements and to restore trust in IRB models by ensuring comparability of the estimates of risk parameters, while retaining their risk sensitivity. This report marks the finalisation of the IRB regulatory review and provides clarity on the next steps.</p>

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) published today a Report on the cross-border supervision of retail financial services. In this report, the ESAs identified the main issues that national competent authorities (NCAs) face when supervising financial institutions that provide cross-border retail financial services within the EU and make recommendations to both NCAs and EU institutions on how to address them. In particular, the Report calls for more clarity on when activities carried out through digital means fall under passporting rules, and for considering the identified high-level principles on cooperation as the basis for any new legislation or possible amendment to current legislation.

<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a thematic Report on the impact of FinTech on payment institutions’ (PIs) and electronic money institutions’ (EMIs) business models. This Report points out the EBA’s key observations on PIs’ and EMIs’ strategies and business model changes, in particular focusing on the current trends and drivers, the different approaches to FinTech, including their interaction with BigTech firms, and the level of implementation of innovative technologies. The Report, which is in line with the priorities listed in its FinTech Roadmap, does not foresee or intend to model scenarios for potential future development of institutions. The Report aims to share knowledge and provide support to supervisors and other stakeholders in identifying and understanding the main trends that could impact PIs’ and EMIs’ business models and pose potential challenges to their sustainability.</p>