Press releases

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on security measures for operational and security risks of payments services under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). These Guidelines, which the EBA developed in close cooperation with the European Central Bank (ECB), are in support of the objective of PSD2 of contributing to an integrated payments market across the European Union, promoting equal conditions for competition, and mitigating the increased security risks arising from electronic payments. This, in turn, minimises disruption to users, payment service providers and payment systems.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on Central Contact Points under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The RTS specify the criteria for determining when the appointment of a central contact point in a host Member State (MS) is appropriate and the functions that these contact points should fulfill. These RTS are in support of the objective of PSD2 of facilitating the supervision by competent authorities (CAs) of the networks of agents used by payment institutions (PIs) and electronic money institutions (EMIs) for providing cross-border payment services under the right of establishment.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued today a revised list of validation rules in its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting, highlighting those which have been deactivated either for incorrectness or for triggering IT problems. Competent Authorities throughout the EU are informed that data submitted in accordance with these ITS should not be formally validated against the set of deactivated rules.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) welcomes the agreement reached on the finalisation of the Basel III framework by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which concludes the global post-crisis prudential reforms. ‘Strong international standards are an essential common yardstick that will support a safe and sound cross-border banking on a global scale’ Andrea Enria, Chairperson of the EBA, said in welcoming the Basel agreement. ‘The EBA is committed to engaging with Competent Authorities and European co-legislators to ensure a successful implementation of the standards in the EU’ Enria added. The EBA published today a summary of the results showing the impact of the agreed reforms on the EU banking sector.

The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) published today two amended Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on the mapping of credit assessments of External Credit Assessment Institutions (ECAIs) for credit risk. The amendments reflect the recognition of five new credit rating agencies (CRAs) and the deregistration of one CRA. The ITS are part of the EU Single Rulebook for banking and insurance aimed at creating a safe and sound regulatory framework consistently applicable across the European Union (EU).

The Breach of Union Law Panel of the European Banking Authority (EBA) decided to close the breach of Union Law investigation (BUL) on Dutch supervisory regime governing proprietary traders it had opened against the Dutch Central Bank (DNB). The BUL panel’s conclusion followed the decision taken by the DNB on 13 November 2017 to redress the breach of Union law by terminating the current national prudential framework for traders for own account. The DNB will notify the EBA on capital conservation plans adopted by the firms concerned and the EBA will monitor the application of these transitional measures.

The Joint Committee of the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA - ESAs) published today its draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) specifying how credit and financial institutions should manage money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) risks at group level where they have branches or majority-owned subsidiaries based in third countries whose laws do not permit the application of group-wide policies and procedures on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).‎ These RTS are part of the ESAs' wider work on fostering a common approach to AML/CFT and will contribute to creating a level playing field across the European Union's financial sector.

The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – published today the 2017 list of identified financial conglomerates.

On 10 February 2016, the European Commission adopted Regulation (EU) 2016/322 (Implementing technical standard – ITS – on reporting on Liquidity Coverage Ratio – LCR), which has become applicable as of September 2016 and adapted to the Commission LCR Delegated Regulation. As a result, the EBA decided to formally repeal its Guidelines setting out the criteria for identifying retail deposits subject to different outflows for the purpose of liquidity reporting, issued in December 2013, as they have been superseded by the LCR Delegated Regulation and are no longer applicable for liquidity reporting purposes.

The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) have been made aware of challenges for certain counterparties to exchange variation margin for physically-settled FX forwards by 3 January 2018. Based on the material presented to the ESAs, the implementation appears to mainly pose a challenge regarding transactions with certain end-users.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its tenth report on risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking sector. The report is accompanied by the 2017 EU-wide transparency exercise, which provides key data in a comparable and accessible format for 132 banks across the EU. The data shows further resilience in the EU banking sector amid a benign macroeconomic and financial environment, with an additional strengthening of the capital position, an improvement of asset quality and a slight increase of profitability. However, further progress on NPLs is needed whilst the long-term sustainability of prevailing business models remains a challenge. The importance of robust data management and IT and operational resilience is also a priority.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its third annual Report on the convergence of supervisory practices across the EU. The Report reviews consistency in the application of the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP) in order to promote comparable supervisory approaches and consistency in supervisory outcomes across the single market. This is necessary for a level playing field, effective supervision of cross border groups, and to identify supervisory best practices.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) welcomes the Council’s decision on its relocation to Paris, in light of the UK’s intention to withdraw from the EU. This is an important decision for the Authority that guarantees a seamless continuation of its activities by reassuring its current and future staff over the new location and putting an end to a period of uncertainty. The EBA is confident that France will support the Authority to ensure a smooth transition, which is crucial to continue delivering on its mission objectives of maintaining financial stability in the EU and safeguarding the integrity, efficiency and orderly functioning of the banking sector.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today its final Guidelines on the estimation of risk parameters for non-defaulted exposures - namely of the probability of default (PD) and the loss given default (LGD), and on the treatment of defaulted exposures under the advanced IRB Approach, including estimation of parameters such as ELBE and LGD in-default. These Guidelines, which are part of the EBA’s regulatory review of the IRB approach, aim to restore market participants’ trust in internal models by reducing the unjustified variability in their outcomes, ensuring comparability of risk estimates while at the same time preserving risk sensitivity of capital requirements.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) publishes today its final methodology for the 2018 EU-wide stress test, following a discussion with industry in summer 2017. The methodology covers all relevant risk areas and, for the first time, incorporates IFRS 9 accounting standards. The stress test exercise will be formally launched in January 2018 and the results to be published by 2 November 2018.