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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

Unlikeliness to pay (UTP) - exit from NP status

Can a customer exit non-performing status immediately (provided of course no other UTP criteria are applicable), or does a period of 12 months need always to pass before the customer can exit?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2018/06 - Guidelines on management of non-performing and forborne exposures

Range of application of the LGD regulatory floor for the calculation of own funds requirements at individual and consolidated levels

Shall the LGD regulatory floor be applied at the territory level of the Member state to exposures secured by property located in the territory of that Member state (Article 164(7) CRR) for the calculation of own funds requirements at any level, i.e. individual and/or consolidated level?

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

LGD adjustment for massive disposals.

Article 500, first paragraph, point (c) of the Regulation (EU) 2013/575 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2019/876 provides for a 20% threshold to qualify disposal operation as “massive”. This question seeks clarification on how to compute the threshold.

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

Interpretation of the term "all observed defaults" in Article 500 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 as amended

Both Article 181(1)(a) and Article 500(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 as amended contain the expression “all observed defaults”. Is that expression meant to be interpreted in the same way in the context of both articles to include both completed and incomplete recovery processes? It is our understanding of Article 181(1)(a) that no observed defaults should be excluded. This understanding is further supported by paragraph 163 of EBA/GL/2017/16, which states that for the purpose of LGD quantification, “institutions should not exclude any defaults in the historical observation period that fall within the scope of application of the LGD model”. Should this view also be extended to the calculation of the threshold under Article 500(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 as amended, and can it be in particular be deduced that neither completed nor incomplete recovery processes can be excluded?

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

Adjustment for massive disposals

Regarding the interpretation of Article 500(1) of the Regulation (EU) 2019/876 amending Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (hereafter “Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 as amended”), do we understand it correctly that:“the average estimated LGDs for comparable exposures in default that have not been finally liquidated” should be derived by applying the estimation method for incomplete recovery processes, which is required under Article 181(1)(a) Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and further explained in paragraphs 158 and 159 of EBA/GL/2017/16, to the disposed assets as of the date just before the disposal;“the average realised LGDs including on the basis of the losses realised due to the massive disposals” should be the average observed LGD for all disposed exposures based on the economic loss of each exposure, taking into account the disposal price as well as material discount effects and material direct and indirect costs associated with collecting on the instrument in line with Article 5(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013the adjustment based on Article 500 for all disposed exposures cannot lead to an estimate of average losses for the disposed assets that is lower than the estimated LGD calculated under point (a) above?

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

NPE calculations of NPE workout options

Should the NPV calculations that paragraph 143 of the EBA Guidelines on management of non-performing and forborne exposures describes be performed with a risk adjusted discount rate, i.e. the original effective interest rate should not be used for these calculations?

  • Legal act: Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2018/06 - Guidelines on management of non-performing and forborne exposures

Interaction of voluntary capital deduction (CRR art 3) with required coverage of non-performing exposures (art 47c), exposure value for credit risk (art 111) and treatment of expected loss amounts (art 159)

Can voluntary CET1 reductions taken following CRR article 3 qualify as 'other own funds reductions' referred to in articles 47c, 111 and 159?

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

Definition of private equity exposures in articles 155(2) and 155(3)

Do “private equity exposures in sufficiently diversified portfolios” eligible to a Risk Weight (RW) of 190% in simple risk weight approach in article 155(2) and a PD of 65% in the PD/LGD approach in article 155(3) refer to any non-listed equity instrument and/or shares in a CIU or units in a CIU for which the underlying exposures are non-listed equity instruments, provided that they are part of a sufficiently diversified portfolio?

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

Clarification about the definition of default for retail exposures

It is unclear how to determine what should be considered as retail exposures for the purpose of the definition of default for retail exposures.What kind of exposures should be considered to determine default under Article 178 CRR?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2016/07 - Guidelines on the application of the definition of default under Article 178 CRR

Recognition criteria for off-balance sheet items for exposure value calculation

If based on the applicable accounting framework (IFRS-EU) it is concluded that there is no contingent liability that should be disclosed for accounting purposes, is it then still possible that an off-balance sheet item exists, which should be recognised for exposure value calculation per Articles 111 CRR or 166 CRR?

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

Criteria for rating transfer

Can “clear policies” referred to in paragraph 62 – such as recognising the relationship between a subsidiary and its consolidating parent or recognising any other form of control as defined in Article 4(1)(37) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 – which lack the features of a material contractual support – be considered as “appropriate guarantee", thereby supporting  the rating transfer?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2017/16 - Guidelines on PD estimation, LGD estimation and the treatment of defaulted exposures

Eligibility of mortgage mandates under Belgian law

Are mortgage mandates under Belgian law eligible as immovable property collateral? Is there a difference between the SA and IRB approach?

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

Application of the LGD floor

Are there any specific requirements regarding the adjustment for the LGD floor? More specifically, is it a sufficient condition to ensure (may be on a daily basis) that the exposure weighted average LGD just needs to meet the floor on a portfolio level and the respective adjustments on the facility level are at the discretion of the bank?

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

Specialised Lending - Interpretation of contractual arrangements that give the lender a substantial degree of control

How shall Article 147 (8)(b) CRR be interpreted when identifying ‘contractual arrangements that give the lender a substantial degree of control over the assets and the income that they generate’ in the context of real estate financing?

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

Use of credit insurance as credit risk mitigation under the standardised approach for credit risk and application of the CRM eligibility requirements to certain clauses which are typical for credit insurance contracts

Does the inclusion of a general exclusions clause (including for example, an exclusion for losses caused by a so-called nuclear event, war or a loss as a result of a fraud or dispute) in a credit insurance contract render the contract non-compliant with the credit risk mitigation (CRM) eligibility requirements for guarantees in CRR, in particular Article 213(1)(c)(iii) CRR, assuming all other conditions have been fulfilled?

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

Absolute materiality threshold for Retail based on the new RTS

How to apply Article 123(c) CRR to set the absolute component of the materiality threshold in the case of transition of exposures to or from Retail.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2016/07 - Guidelines on the application of the definition of default under Article 178 CRR

Application of national decisions pursuant to Article 124(2) CRR

Is it mandatory pursuant to Article 124(5) CRR for an institution in another member state to apply national decisions, which purport to be released pursuant to Article 124(2) CRR, but are not published on the EBA website under Rules and Guidance?Furthermore, if such national decisions are not published under Rules and Guidance, but e.g. under Options and national discretions only, is it mandatory that institutions from other member states apply such decision pursuant to Article 124(5) CRR?

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

Calculation of the number of obligors

In EBA/GL/2017/16 paragraph 73 it is explained that in the calculation of the one-year default rates the number of obligors is used. Is it always mandatory to count one legal entity as one obligor, or can a group of legal entities for which there is no difference in risk due to an appropriate guarantee (i.e. those will default together) be counted as one obligor?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2017/16 - Guidelines on PD estimation, LGD estimation and the treatment of defaulted exposures

Use of rating before or after transfer in the calculation of the one-year default rates

In a situation where a parent institution (good rating) has issued a full encompassing guarantee for a subsidiary - bad rating, thus supporting the subsidiary before a default event, and preventing (or reducing the risk of) a default – would this constitute a substitution effect due to a credit risk mitigation under paragraph 74 of EBA Guidelines EBA/GL/2017/16?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2017/16 - Guidelines on PD estimation, LGD estimation and the treatment of defaulted exposures