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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

Risk weight of guarantees not in the domestic currency of the borrower

What is the correct risk weight of a loan, which has been granted to a client in euro, and guaranteed by an EU central government also in euro, but the domestic currency of the borrower is not euro?

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

Assignment of irrevocable standby letters of credit and guarantees, which neither have the character of credit substitutes nor are related to trade finance, to the relevant risk category according to Annex I of the CRR.

Are irrevocable standby letters of credit and guarantees, which neither have the character of credit substitutes nor are related to trade finance, assigned to the risk category ‘medium risk’ according to Annex I?

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

Applicable exposure class for exposures to institutions based in a third country that does not apply prudential supervisory and regulatory requirements

For those institutions based in a third country that does not apply prudential supervisory and regulatory requirements at least equivalent to those applied in the Union, should the exposure class to these institutions be disclosed as an exposure to corporate or exposure to institution? 

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

Treatment of an asset resulting from obligatory payments to Deposit Guarantee Scheme in Risk Weighted Assets calculation (Standardised Approach).

How should an asset resulting from prepayment of obligatory contribution to Deposit Guarantee Scheme be treated for the purpose of credit risk capital requirements calculation under the Standardised Approach?Should it be recognised as ‘Other assets’ (prepayments to unknown counterparty) or as an exposure to the Deposit Guarantee Scheme?Moreover, if the recognition as an exposure to the Deposit Guarantee Scheme is correct, is it possible to treat the Deposit Guarantee Scheme as a Public Sector Entity which can be treated under Article 116(4) CRR, and therefore assigned a 0% risk weight?

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

Speculative immovable property financing definition with respect to debt-for-asset swaps

In the case described below, in individual level of reporting, should exposures to the SPVs be treated as "Speculative Immovable Property Financing" and be risk weighted at 150% under Article 128 of the CRR, or should they be RW at 100% which reflects the RW of the property included in the Consolidated level of reporting (intercompany balances are eliminated and the asset remaining in the consolidated balance sheet is the property held for sale)?

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

Use of the last available data for risk quantification sample and out-of-time validation sample

Given the requirements of articles 175(4)(b) and 179(1)(a) , in case of a model development, should the last available one-year snapshot be used for risk quantification purposes (i.e. for the computation of the Long-run average default rate) or be set aside for validation tests?

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

Definition of exposure in non-significant business units and relating “significance” test

A) Can you please clarify how exposures in non-significant business units in Art. 150(1) (c) should be intended? B) Can you please clarify which are the criteria for such a “significant” test.

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

Original maturity of credit lines until-further notice

For risk classification as off-balance sheet item according to Annex I CRR, is the original maturity longer than one year where non-retail credit lines until further notice (i.e. no fixed maturity) may be cancelled with 3 months advance notification period and even immediately in case the borrower becoming delinquent or declaring bankruptcy?

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

To which exposure class the fair value changes of the hedged items in portfolio hedge of interest rate risk should be assigned

To which exposure class the 'fair value changes of the hedged items in portfolio hedge of interest rate risk' (recorded in the IFRS consolidated financial statements in accordance with (IAS 39.89A(a); IFRS 9.6.5.8) have to be assigned. The recorded exposure relates to a bottom layer macro fair value hedge of mortgage loans. Due to the application of the bottom layer macro fair value hedge approach there is no individual allocation of the exposure value of the hedged item to the individual mortgage loans. Should this exposure be treated as an 'exposure secured by mortgages on immovable property' or as 'other items', and subsequently, which risk weight should be applied to this exposure.

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

Short-term Exposures

What does short-term in this context mean? 90 days of remaining maturity or original maturity of 1 year?

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

Fair value adjustments that arise as a result of applying fair value hedge accounting

Should fair value adjustments which arise as a result of applying fair value hedge accounting to mitigate interest rate risk be treated under the CRR credit risk framework or under a different risk framework? And if under a different risk framework, which risk framework should that be?

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

RWA calculation and the applicable amount of insufficient coverage for non-performing exposures deducted from CET1 items

Under Article 151(1) CRR, can non-performing exposures, or parts thereof, belonging to one of the exposure classes referred to in points (a) to (e) and (g) of Article 147(2) CRR, be exempted from being risk-weighted to the extent that the related applicable amounts of insufficient coverage for those non-performing exposures have been deducted from Common Equity Tier 1 items, in accordance with Article 36(1) (m) CRR2? Can the applicable amounts of insufficient coverage for non-performing exposures belonging to one of the exposure classes referred to in points (a) to (e) and (g) of 147(2) that have been deducted from CET1 items, in accordance with Article36(1)(m) CRR, qualify as 'exposures deducted from own funds' or 'exposures deducted from Common Equity Tier 1 items, Additional Tier 1 items or Tier 2 items, for the purpose of Article151(1) CRR?

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

Risk weight for new asset class of non-preferred senior debt

What risk weight should be applied to non-preferred senior (NPS) debt, under the standardised approach for credit risk?

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

PD Calibration Sample

Given the definition of PD calibration provided in EBA/GL/2017/16 section 2.4 paragraph 8, and the requirements for the calibration sample provided in section 5.3.5, paragraph 88 of the same guidelines, for developing a Through-the-Cycle (TTC) model, under which conditions it is mandatory to adopt the current portfolio or a multi-year snapshots as calibration sample? And consequently should the calibration testing in validation phase verify the alignment between the Central Tendency and the PD estimations on recent portfolio snapshot or multiyear sample?

  • 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

Exposure treatment for trades with Specific Wrong-Way risk

In the Q&A 2016_2590, EBA indicates that "Article 291 CRR only applies to the internal model method (IMM) for CCR. It has to be noted that for these kind of trades, special exposure treatment is required according to Article 291(5)(b)-(f) CRR". However, last paragraph of article 273 of CRR indicate that "For the methods set out in Sections 3 to 6, institutions shall treat transactions where specific wrong way risk has been identified in accordance with Article 291(2), (4), (5) and (6) as appropriate". It seems, consequently, that article 291 of CRR (included article 291 (5) (b) - (f)) should also be applied to Mark-to market method (section 3), to Original exposure method (section 4) and to Standardized method (section 5). Could you please confirm ?

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

Risk weight of EU unrated central bank whose exposures are guaranteed by its EU government which is rated CQS1

What should be the risk weight of an EU unrated central bank whose exposures are fully guaranteed by its EU government which is rated CQS1?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2014/05 - Guidelines on significant credit risk transfer

Look-through approach resulting in a credit risk position of own institution

When applying the look-through approach of Article 132(4) CRR, what risk weight shall an institution apply to a position that is based against its own institution?

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

Use of short-term issuer credit assessments with Article 131

May short-term issuer ratings be used to assign risk weights in the context of article 131?

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

Applicable treatment of fair value changes for the identification of the applicable RW to exposures in default under the Standardised Approach

In the application of Article 127 CRR, should the credit risk adjustments embedded in the fair value be considered in the calculation of the percentage of the unsecured part of the exposure value represented by credit risk adjustments?

  • 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