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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

Treatment of Hedges for Equity-Linked Employee Compensation Schemes and Impact on FSE Capital Deductions

As part of their Corporate Equity Derivatives businesses, European banks are often asked to provide Financial Sector Entity (“FSE”) and non-FSE clients with hedges to their equity-linked employee compensation schemes or share savings plans. Typically in these circumstances the client goes long its own equity price risk synthetically, via purchasing call options or buying a total return swap (“TRS”). The TRS is an ISDA-based derivative contract under which the purchaser (in this case the client) receives the dividend and any price appreciation on the underlying equity security, and the seller (in this case the bank) receives a LIBOR / EURIBOR return plus a spread, along with any price depreciation on the underlying equity security. As the bank is short the client’s equity price risk under the TRS contract, it will typically purchase the client’s physical shares in the market in order to hedge the delta exposure under the sold TRS position. These positions are allocated to the regulatory trading book subject to the applicable requirements, and for the purposes of this discussion it is assumed the short position satisfies either the CRR Art 45 maturity matching criteria or the CRR Art 75 exemption. Where the bank has credit risk to the client (under the TRS), the client will, in most circumstances, be asked to provide cash margin on a daily basis to cover any mark-to-market movements in the bank’s favour. The TRS will be documented using standard ISDA documentation, with the cash collateralisation taking place under a CSA or similar arrangement. Would the TRS be considered an eligible hedge for the purposes of Article 45 under those circumstances?

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

On-balance sheet netting and exemption from the Large Exposures limits

Are on-balance sheet (OBS) netting agreements, where there are maturity mismatches between loans and deposits, eligible the exemption from the large exposures regime as laid down in Article 400 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)?

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

Classification of credit unions

Should the loans to credit unions (eg. Spoldzielcze Kasy Oszczednosciowo Kredytowe in Poland) be presented under category "Credit institutions" or as "Other financial corporations"?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

On-balance sheet netting and exemption from the Large Exposures limits - question 1

Are on-balance sheet (OBS) netting agreements, where both legs are denominated in different currencies, exempted from the application of Article 395(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)??

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

Application of requirements on a consolidated basis to a stand-alone bank in a Member State owned by a financial holding institution in another Member State and by a third-country bank: submission of FINREP on a consolidated basis.

A stand-alone bank in a Member State that, according to Article 11 of CRR, has to respect prudential requirements on the basis of a consolidated perimeter including financial companies located in other States shall submit FINREP information on a consolidated basis, in addition to COREP information?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Disclosure on the basis of consolidated situation of EU parent financial holding company

According to Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), institutions controlled by an EU parent financial holding company shall comply with the obligations laid down in Part Eight on the basis of the consolidated situation of that financial holding company. In the case where a parent financial holding company has control over two separate institutions in different member states (without any equity holdings between these two institutions), are both of these institutions obliged to disclose information laid down in Part Eight on the basis of consolidated situation of the parent financial holding company? If yes, is there possibility that one of aforementioned institutions can “outsource” disclosure obligations on the basis of consolidated situation of the parent financial holding company to the other?

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

Financial Difficulties

A clearer definition of the phrase 'Financial Difficulties' is required.

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

Asset Encumbrance - Default Fund pledges

On what line in the AE-SOU are cash pledges related to Exchange Default Fund minimum requirement reported? 

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Asset Encumbrance - Treatment of Intraday

Where institutions hold surplus assets to manage intraday risk we would expect these assets should be reported as encumbered in AE-ASS and AE-COL (if security is held via reverse repo for example). In what line would the source encumbrance be reported on in the AE-SOU?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Non-Renewable loans and receivables

NSFR: Should non-renewable loans and receivables be presented as gross (not affected by general and specific allowances) or as net (affected by general and specific allowances)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Conditions to benefit from the 4% risk weight in Article 305(3) and treatment in Article 306

Does the application of the 4% risk weight referred to in Article 305(3) presuppose that the omnibus model meets all requirements set out in Article 305(2) lit (a) to (d) CRR and article 305(3) CRR together? Or, is Article 305(3) CRR meant to replace the requirement in article 305(2)(a), which presupposes an individual style segregation model?

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

Correct time bucket for unsecured master agreements for derivative transactions, secured master agreements for derivative transactions and cash collateral posted/received under a master agreement

According to the instructions ANNEX 13 of "Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 – ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions" Institutions shall calculate derivative assets and liabilities according to regulatory netting rules, not accounting rules, and report the amounts in both template 1.1. “Required funding” and template 1.2 “Stable funding” accordingly. 1.) Regarding unsecured master agreements (i.e. no collateral posted/received) for derivative transactions: in what time bucket should the amount after netting (according to regulatory netting rules) be recorded? 2.) Regarding secured master agreements (i.e. collateral posted/received and daily margining) for derivative transactions: in what time bucket should the amount after netting (according to regulatory netting rules) be recorded? 3.) Regarding cash collateral which is posted under a derivative master agreement: in what time bucket (column) and row (i.e. duration of encumbrance) should the cash collateral be recorded?

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

Exemption of purchased receivables from Aricle 405's retention requirement

Do the provisions in Article 405(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 apply to purchased receivables?

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

Validation of LCR Submission

Is validation rule v1512_m correct?v1512 m - C52.00, Row 1140 - 1210, Additional Outflows: As it is not explicitly clear from the rules or guidance as to how to treat cash assets (e.g. cash held at a bank) in this particular section, it has been interpreted that the columns to be populated are as follows: - {c030} Market Value: Represents the market value of non-cash assets (i.e. excludes cash balances) - {c040} Value according to Article 418: Represents (i) the market value of non-cash assets after the deduction of an appropriate haircut as per Article 418, plus (ii) the full value of cash balances, in line with Article 416(1)(a). - {c020} Outflow: Outflow calculated based on cash and non-cash assets as prescribed by Article 423. Based on the interpretation above, as cash balances are excluded from {c030} Market Value, validation v1512_m fails.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

C 41.00 - Inconsistency between Validations and EBA member/dimension types causes validation v0668_m to fail

Validation rule v0668_m states that r{r010} = sum(r020-100). We believe this validation rule will fail due to the fact that the categorisation of row 100 (x3 - 'Defaulted') for dimension Impairment status is different than the one for row 010 (x5 -'Non defaulted') which represents the total as per the validation rule.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Template C 08.02 - Col 080 has Missing 'CRM Effects/Collateral' dimension

In template C 08.02, col 080 is defined without the dimension 'CRM Effects/Collateral [CRM]'. This looks logically incorrect and would also result in failure of validation rule: v0347_m {c090} = {c020} + {c070} + {c080}

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Large Exposures - maturity buckets

Is it possible to report negative amounts in some maturity buckets of the exposure in LE4 and LE5 templates? According to the validation rules, every column in template LE4 and LE5 should be larger than or equal to zero.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

The approach that AMA credit institutions should use when determining the relevant indicator in order to fill in C 16.00 – Operational risk template.

Which is the approach that AMA credit institutions should use when computing the relevant indicator that should be reported in line 130 columns 010-030 of the C 16.00 – Operational risk template?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)

Treatment of central banks as non-financial customers or financial customers

If an institution has unsecured deposits from a central bank, are those deposits from financial customers or deposits from non-financial customers?

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