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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

Items associated with particular high risk

Does the term "investments" in letters (a) investments in venture capital firms, (b) investments in AIFs (...) and (c) investments in private equity include only exposures in the form of shares or units in (equity of) venture capital firms, AIFs, and private equity, or it is related to all forms of exposures (e.g. debt and equity instruments, units and shares in CIUs, etc.)?

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

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

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

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

The mortgage lending value of the German property

The part of an exposure treated as fully secured by a German property shall be the lower amount of the market value or the mortgage lending value of the property. Does it mean that the mortgage lending value of the German property must be determined so that the property can be treated as collateral? How shall we treat the German property, in which only the market value exists, but not the mortgage lending value?

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

Inclusion of expected loss for equity exposures in calculation of Expected loss amount reducing CET1

Shall the expected loss amount for equity exposures under the IRB approach be offset against the specific and general credit risk adjustments of all risk positions?If not, how shall they be treated? Does it has to be deducted from CET 1 in either case, also if there is a surplus increasing T2 according to Article 62 (d)?Does this also mean that EL for equity exposures shall be reported in CA4 row 140 respective 155 or not?

  • 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)

Balance Sheet Netting as a CRM technique

Is Balance Sheet Netting according to Article 195 limited to Cash Balances in the same currency?

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

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