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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

Definition of a financial institution

Following the corrigendum of November 30 2013, the definition of a “financial sector entity” (FSE) was modified, however, the definition of a “financial institution” (FI) remained unchanged. We seek clarification for the following two main issues: 1) Clarification is sought on whether all “undertakings other than institutions, the principal activity of which is to acquire holdings” – irrespective of whether the holdings in question relate to undertakings in- or outside of the financial sector – qualify as a financial institution (FI) (and accordingly as a financial sector entity (FSE) pursuant to Article 4(1)(27) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)) for prudential consolidation purposes and also for purposes of capital deductions for investments in FSEs. 2) As the CRR does not give a definition of what “principal activity” means in relation to FI, there is room for interpretation leading to divergent treatment across Member States – in particular, where a bank owns shares in a holding company that owns a non-financial group (i.e. a group that does not undertake an activity under Annex 1 of Directive 2013/36/EU (CRD)). We seek clarification on whether an undertaking’s principal activity (e.g. to acquire holdings) needs to be determined on an individual basis (i.e. also in the case of holding companies) or whether it can be determined on the basis of its consolidated situation (i.e. including the holding company plus its non-financial subsidiaries and holdings) and by taking into account all relevant qualitative and quantitative criteria (e.g. proportion of assets, of profits and of capital resulting from the acquisition of holdings versus operating activities, including activities listed in Annex I to CRD; human resources deployed; etc) on group level.

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

Annex XV Validation formulae

Ilogical validations in Annex XV

  • 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)

Inclusion of derivatives in the product list mentioned in Article 378

Are derivatives also to be included in the product list mentioned in Article 378?

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

Classification of in default exposures that are at the same time is an Item Associated with Particular High Risk

Following the decision tree, it is clear that "Items Associated with Particular High Risk" take precedence over "Exposures in Default". However, if for example we have a case of speculative immovable property financing that is in default where do we classify it? If we include the exposure in the Associated with Particular High Risk class, then during COREP review or other regulatory review exercises, it might not give the correct picture for the level of in default exposures that an institution has in its portfolio. Shall the in default items with particular high risk be classified in the "In default" exposure class?

  • 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)

Calculation of the threshold deductions (from CET1) during the transitional period

In calculating the threshold deductions from Common Equity Tier 1 during the transitional period [Article 470] should the following items be fully or partially deducted from Common Equity Tier 1 according to the national discretion phase-in and/or filter? (i.e. should the “transitional period threshold” be exactly equal to the “full application threshold” or the former should be determined considering the national discretions phase-in/filter effects). More specifically: - Unrealized losses measured at fair value: in countries where national discretion rules provide [Article 467(2)] for a filter to not include in any element of own funds unrealised gains or losses on exposures to central governments classified in the “Available for Sale” category of EU-endorsed IAS 39, the Common Equity Tier 1 considered for the calculation of the threshold deductions during transitional period should be determined with or without those specific unrealized losses measured at fair value? - Loss carry forward: in countries where national discretion rules provide for a phasing-in of loss carry forward deductions (deferred tax assets that rely on future profitability and do not arise from temporary differences) [Article 469 (1)], the Common Equity Tier 1 considered for the calculation of the threshold deductions during transitional period should be determined by subtracting all the loss carry forward or just the applicable percentage determined by the national authority? - Shortfall of expected losses to provision: in countries where national discretion rules provide for a phasing-in of shortfall of expected losses to provision deductions (negative amounts resulting from the calculation of expected loss amounts for IRB institutions) [Article 469 (1)], the Common Equity Tier 1 considered for the calculation of the threshold deductions during transitional period should be determined by subtracting all the shortfall of expected losses to provision or just the applicable percentage determined by the national authority?

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

Regulatory Add-on % for Inflations Swaps

Should point 3 of Annex II (types of derivatives) have a title? Points 1 and 2 both have titles; it is inconsistent that point 3 has no title. Article 274 (3) makes reference to "contracts relating to commodities other than gold, referred to in point 3 of Annex II". What derivative types, as classified in table 1 in the article, does point 3 cover? This ambiguity leads me to ask should an Inflation swaps linked to RPI index, be treated as an 'Interest rate' contract or a 'Commodity' Contract? Given the current wording of point 3, Annex II suggests that Inflation swaps should be treated as Interest Rate contracts, they are of a similar nature to interest rate contracts.

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

Underwriting Commitments

Can underwriting commitments as described under Article 345 of the CRR be included in the Exposure measure of the Leverage ratio?

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

Discrepancy between taxonomy expectation and ITS

In the report CR SEC DET, C14.00, the ITS clearly says that column 290 and 300 must written according to the following format : MM/YYYY In the taxonomy published in december those cells are defined as DATE. The problem here is that many of our customers only collect Month and Year for those columns in their information system, but not the day as it was not required first. And as far as i know, in the taxonomy a DATE information muste have a Day to be valid (year and month are not sufficient) => Will you keep those fields as date? if so, is it possible to send those fields with a fixed day?

  • 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 - major trading currencies in overnight transactions

How are the major trading currencies to be determined under Article 400(2)(f) of the CRR? Clarification is needed on what is to be considered a major trading currency under Article 400(2)(f).

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

Definition of assets with an undefined maturity date

May CIU shares which do not meet the requirements of article 416, paragraph 6 of the CRR, but that the institution may call and which are contractually repayable at any time within the 30-day time horizon, be considered as assets with an undefined contractual end and taken into account as inflows up to 20% their total amount?

  • 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)

Audit of the FINREP figures

1) As regards FINREP reports, audited figures shall mean: - audited FINREP reports (i.e. the external auditor expressing an audit opinion on the FINREP reports as a whole) OR - building the FINREP reports based on final, audited figures existent in the accounting (i.e. based on the information from the annual published consolidated financial statements)? 2) What is the frequency of the auditing obligation in the case of FINREP 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)

C0700 : Descrepancy between Taxonomy and ITS

In the ITS, the row 280 of the reporting C0700 is forbidden for the following exposure classes : -Government, -Corporates, -Institutions, -Retail. When we look at the taxonomy it seems that no particular control is done to forbid figures for those cells. Does the EBA expects any figures for those cells?

  • 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)

Label discrepancy

By comparing the ITS published on the EC : http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/bank/regcapital/legislation_in_force... And the Taxonomy published by the EIOPA last year it seems that some "rows label" and "column labels" are not exactly the same. Which label should be considered as the correct one? instance : - Form C0200 EBA Taxo: Row 020 : Of which: Investment firms under Article 90 paragraph 2 and Article 93 of CRR EC : Row 020 : Of which: Investment firms under Article 95 paragraph 2 and Article 98 of CRR EBA Taxo: Row 030 : Of which: Investment firms under Article 91 paragraph 1 and 2 and Article 92 of CRR EC : Row 030 : Of which : Investment firms under Article 96 paragraph 2 and Article 97 of CRR - Form C0501 EBA Taxo: Row 090 : 1.2.2 Transitional recognition in consolidated own funds of minority interests and qualifying Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital EC : Row 090 1.2.2 Transitional recognition in consolidated own funds of minority interests EBA : Row 100 : 1.3 ADJUSTMENTS TO DEDUCTIONS EC : Row 100 : 1.3 OTHER TRANSITIONAL ADJUSTMENTS [...]

  • 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)

Interpretation of EADitotal and Mi in the standardised CVA charge.

Where there are several trades with the same counterparty but there is no regulatory netting agreement in place: Is one EADitotal and one Mi applied per counterparty within the formula? If one EADitotal and one Mi is applied per counterpart, can the Mi be calculated as the weighted average notional? (ambiguity arises because the CRR guidance referred to on maturity only references trades in a netting set for the calculation of a weighted average notional (article 162 (2) b)) If in the above case it is determined that individual trades are to be treated separately with no weighted average notional maturity calculated, is each EAD and M applied and treated as a separate counterparty within the formula?

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

C21 Additional requirements for options (non-delta risks) : reporting requirements

In the report C21, the taxonomy, accordingly with the ITS last functional XLS templates allows the row 090 to be fed for other column that capital requirements. But, this seems very strange from some of our customers as in all other Market risk templates ( ie. MKR SA COM, MKR SA FX) this row must only be fed for the column "Own fund requirements". => In the report C21.00, for rows "090" shall we report figures in column "010" to ""050"?

  • 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)

Leverage Ratio, form 46.00

In the taxonomy, it seems that we have an open fact set on the cell Line 160 column 02. Although this cell is not mentioned in the ITS (only cells 160;1 and 160;3 seems to appear in the ITS). => May you confirm if the EBA expects or not to receive a fact for cell 160;2? => Will the ITS or the Taxonomy be updated accordingly?

  • 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)

Inconsistency between taxonomy and ITS - MKR SA TDI

In the taxonomy it seems that the following cells may be fed for all exposures classes (In the taxonomy the facts are "open" for the cells of the following rows ) : - row 325 column 610 - row 330 column 610 Bu tin the same time for those cells, the ITS clearly says that " It shall only be reported on Total level of the MKR SA TDI ". So based on the ITS some of our customers do not want to give a split by currency for those cells. => May you confirm if the EBA expects or not to receive a breakdown by currency for the following cells? => Do you thing that the ITS or the taxonomy will be updated accordingly?

  • 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)

Inconsistency between taxonomy and ITS - report CR SA

In the taxonomy it seems that the cells from the following rows may be fed for all exposures classes (In the taxonomy the facts are "open" for the cells of the following rows ): - 020 : of which SME - 030 : of which : SME subject to SME-supporting factor - 040 : of which : Secured by mortgages ... But in the last version of the ITS (and also in the old one), the functional text mentions that those rows should only be displayed for some specific exposures classes (i.e screen shot below). Some of our customers think that, accordingly to the ITS, the following rows must be "closed" for non listed exposures classes like "Institutions", "central governments or central banks", "Covered Bonds" ... Indeed, for them those reporting SME details for an exposure on "central governments or central banks" is just functional non-sense. => May you confirm that rows "020" to "040" must only be reported for the exposure classes listed in the ITS? => If so, can we expect that a future version of the taxonomy will close the facts relative to those rows for the ITS unlisted exposure classes.

  • 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)

COREP NACE codes

Has a revised list of NACE codes been issued or are the current NACE codes based on the Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 to be used when reporting under COREP?

  • 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)

Internal Model Method for counterparty credit risk: Determination of the effective expected exposure when the model captures the effect of margining (Article 285(1)(c))

Article 285(1)(c) states that 'if the model captures the effects of margining when estimating EE, the institution may, subject to the permission of the competent authority, use the model's EE measure directly in the equation in Article 284(5).'Does the adverb 'directly' mean that institutions have to calculate their Effective Expected Exposure (EEE) as1.) EffectiveEEtk = max{EffectiveEEtk-1 , EEtkmargined}, i.e. just insert margined EEs in the equation in Art. 284 (5) or2.) EffectiveEEtk = EEtkmargined, i.e. substitute the monotony operator by the margined EEs?

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