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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 irrevocable payment commitments according to Article 103(3) BRRD

How should payment commitments pursuant to Article 103(3) BRRD (Directive 2014/59/EU) be treated in the capital requirements for credit risk?

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

Assignment of exposures to exposure class of Public Sector Entities

Can only the entities having legal forms of non-profit associations and foundations qualify as PSE-s and be assigned to exposure class of PSEs, or could PSEs also include legal forms of either public or private limited liability companies, which are either owned by or set up and sponsored by central governments, regional governments or local authorities and are under public supervision?

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

Treatment of negative accrued interests in the credit risk

Do negative accrued interests reduce the exposure value, whereas positive accrued interests increase the exposure value?In particular, are negative accrued interests deducted from CET1 and should a reduction be done, if the negative accrued interests are already included in the retained earnings, according to article 26(1)(c), or in the losses for the current financial year, according to Article 36 (1) a of CRR?

  • 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Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 680/2014 - ITS on supervisory reporting of institutions (repealed)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 exposures to non-EU equivalent investment firms, non-EU equivalent credit institutions and non-EU equivalent exchanges.

1. With reference to EBA Q&A 677, what is the regulatory basis/rationale in your decision to treat a non-EU equivalent third country exposure to recognised exchange as an exposure to a corporate? Please reference the CRR/ Single RuleBook in your response.2. Does the treatment describer in Q&A 677 or non-EU equivalent recognised exchanges also apply to exposures to non-EU equivalent investment firms and non-EU equivalent credit institutions so that they will also be treated as exposures to corporates? Please reference the CRR/ Single RuleBook in your response.3. Should these exposures be reported (C07 CRSA) in the exposure classes Institutions or Corporates?

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

Monitoring and evaluation of mortgages in cases of portfolio-wholesale transactions

Is it possible to assign the preferential risk weight of 35% according to Article 125 (1) (a) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) to exposures that have been purchased at a wholesale price based on a) samples as to whether the conditions laid down in Art 208 and 229 CRR are fulfilled and b) a warranty guaranteeing full compensation in case any of these exposures default?

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

Classifications of loans to SPVs as to SME

How should the repayment of loans to SPV's (classified as SME) be considered for the purpose of Article 501 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)? Should the original exposure amount be taken into account? 

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

Application of Article 159 on the level of total own funds

Can the excess of provisions for non-defaulted exposures be used to cover the shortfall of provisions on defaulted exposures?On the reporting side, which of the two options is the correct way for the own funds reporting (C 04.00) in the following case?Option 1 – netting in C.01.00 row 380 “(-) IRB shortfall of credit risk adjustments to expected losses“ – (1000) row 910 „IRB Excess of provisions over expected losses eligible“ – 600 Effect to the total capital – minus 400Option 2 – no netting at all (no recognition of any excess because it is on defaulted exposures) row 380 “(-) IRB shortfall of credit risk adjustments to expected losses“ – (1000) row 910 „IRB Excess of provisions over expected losses eligible“ – 0 Effect to total capital – minus 1000 

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

ECAI ratings

1) For the determination of the risk-weight applicable to an exposure, is a “Bank Deposit Rating” an issue rating as per Article 139 of the CRR? 2) For the determination of the risk-weight applicable to an exposure, should a “Bank Deposit Rating” be used instead of an “Issuer rating” for exposures to institutions which are in the form of deposits (i.e. bank deposits)? What would be the treatment in accordance with Article 139 of the CRR?3) For instance, which Moody’s rating should be used to risk-weight an exposure to an institution which is in the form of a deposit (i.e. bank deposit): - the “Issuer Rating”? - the “Bank Deposit Rating”? - the “Obligation rating”? - one of the other ratings described in Moody’s methodology? Similar considerations apply to ratings issued by other ECAIs.

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

Computation of discount for purchased assets

How does the treatment described in the last subparagraph of Article 166(1) CRR interact with that of Article 159 CRR? How does the definition of discount/premium apply in prudential treatment of exposures?

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

Definition of “effective procedures” to monitor that the property taken as credit protection is adequately insured against the risk of damage.

What are the minimal criteria of adequate insurance of property against the risk of damage that the "procedures" should consist of in order to be assessed as effective?

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

Meaning of "credit lines" in the context of conversion factors for certain off-balance sheet items

Which types of off-balance sheet exposures are referred to by the term “other credit lines” in Article 166(8)(d) CRR? Specific clarification is requested (i) for long-term letters of credit arising from the movement of goods, as only such short-term letters are mentioned in Article 166 (8)(b) CRR, and (ii) for guarantees.

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

Risk weight for exposures to central-government-risk PSEs with an original maturity of 3 months or less, which are denominated in foreign currency

May exposures to PSEs established in a Member State, whose level of risk in the opinion of the competent authority of the Member State in question does not differ from the level of risk of the central government, be assigned a risk weight of 20% in accordance with Article 116(3) CRR if they are denominated in foreign currency?

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

Risk weighting under the Standardised Approach for credit risk for an exposure secured by a mortgage on a residential property which is a second home (for instance, a holiday home).

Can a second home be a residential property under Article 4(75) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) and thus a respective mortgage benefit from the 35% risk weight under article 125(1)(a)?

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

Relevant competent authority to determine the same risk weight treatment as the central government

Who is the relevant competent authority to determine if the same treatment of regional government exposure and central government exposure can be applied? The national supervisor, the European Commission or the ECB?

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

Treatment of decreases of impairments in the calculation of the exposure value

In the context of published Q&A 2014_1087 how should a credit institution treat decreases of impairments, value adjustments or provisions (in case of reduced identified losses) recognised during the year, i.e. in the interim period, in the case where the competent authority has not given its permission to include the interim profit into the calculation of Common Equity Tier 1 capital, and the credit institution has not reflected the amounts with a corresponding "immediate reduction in Common Equity Tier 1 capital" although the changes in impairments, value adjustments or provisions for off-balance sheet items are reflected in interim profits or year-end profits?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 183/2014 - RTS for the calculation of specific and general credit risk adjustments

Retail exposures above EUR 1m - definition and understanding

Would a private individual client need to be regarded as "non retail" if the original exposure is above EUR 1 million (line EUR 2m) or could he stay in the "Retail" exposures class if his EAD is below EUR 1million (EAD close to zero) or the drawn amount is below euro 1m (drawn amount below EUR1m)?Clarity would be appreciated for both the standardised and IRB approach.

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

Treatment of retail exposures secured by property under IRB

How should institutions treat a retail exposure for an SME that has a minor property collateral (and thus it is partly secured by immovable property) but the purpose of this loan is not property/mortgage finance? Are the correlation coefficient prescribed in Article 154(3) and the minimum LGD requirement in Article 164(4) applicable for the full exposure?

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

Recognition of unfunded credit protection / guarantees under Advanced IRB

Does an institution which has been granted permission to use the IRB Approach, including to use own estimates of LGD and conversion factors have the option to use the credit risk mitigation techniques of Chapter 4 (general CRM rules) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), or must it make adjustments using its own estimates?Do the requirements for recognition of CRM under Chapter 4 apply to AIRB firms, or are these superseded by the Chapter 3, Section 6 requirements for IRB firms, including Article 183 CRR regarding recognition of unfunded credit protection for AIRB firms?For the purposes of Art 161(3) CRR, how does one determine the relevant risk weight of "a comparable, direct exposure to the guarantor"? Art 161(4) CRR gives guidance, but this is specifically with regard to the application of Art 153(3) CRR, i.e.: the "double default" approach. Is Art 161(4) CRR also relevant for Art 161(3) CRR?Is the "double default" approach detailed in Art 153(3) CRR and in Chapter 4 (Articles 202 and 217 CRR) also available for AIRB firms?

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

Assigning Specific Credit Risk Adjustments for a group of exposures to the exposures within the group

Following question 2013_499, could you confirm that this implies that the collective provisions allocated to specific portfolios for accounting purposes (FINREP) will agree at aggregate level with the amounts booked in the financial statements but the allocation for RWA to single exposures will differ from the allocation for accounting purposes to single exposures and thus a single exposure will show a different collective provision for accounting purposes (FINREP) than that for RWA?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 183/2014 - RTS for the calculation of specific and general credit risk adjustments

Splitting exposures

In the case that an exposure has attributes that it can be assigned into various exposure classes, may it be divided into two exposure classes?

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