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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

Exercise of the power to convert liabilities towards creditors

For the purpose of resolution, may the resolution authority exercise the power to convert liabilities towards creditors that would not incur losses under normal insolvency proceedings, where the power of write down has previously been exercised to ensure that the net asset value of the institution under resolution is equal to zero? More generally, how can the needs for recapitalisation be met when the total amount of remaining liabilities which are not excluded or protected by NCWO is not sufficient and the total losses are lower than 8% of the total liabilities?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Deposits referred to the in Article 7(8) DGSD

Should the “deposits fulfilling a social purpose defined by national law, for which a third party has given a guarantee” referred to in Article 7(8) of Directive 2014/49/EU (DGSD) be considered as covered deposits or as a secured liability referred to in Article 43(2)(b) of Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD) ? If not, what may be their ranking in insolvency proceedings referred to in Article 108 of BRRD?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Necessary prior authorisation in Article 60

Can you please clarify what is meant by "the necessary prior authorization" referred to in Article 60 of Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Application of 8% requirement to group resolution

Should the contribution to loss absorption and recapitalisation be calculated with reference to the liabilities of the holding company being bailed in, or the liabilities of the failing subsidiary or subsidiaries?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Reference to paragraph 8 in Article 41 (9)

To which obligation under paragraph 8 is Article 41 (9) of Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD) referring to (the one provided under the first or the second paragraph? If it were the case that Article 41 (9) provides that when a bridge institution is used for the purpose of transferring assets and liabilities of more than one institution under resolution the insolvency proceedings shall refer to the assets and liabilities transferred from each of the institutions under resolution and not to the bridge institution itself, what does that really mean?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Sequence of write down of shares and subordinated debt

When applying the bail-in tool, (but not the Point of Non-Viability write-down), is it necessary to act on all ”shares” before touching upon ”subordinated debt”?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/59/EU (BRRD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Online foreign exchange

Does the business of foreign currency exchange-Forex require an authorisation as payment institution under PSD2, provided that: (a) the currency exchange takes place via online exchange platform; and (b) the client deposits certain base in cash or sends it by bank transfer to a bank account of the Forex company; and (c) the client receives the quote (exchanged) currency in an online client account in the platform from where the exchanged amount may be sent to a client's bank account or may be withdrawn in cash at the Forex company's offices?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Services offered by means of ATM by providers

Which is the appropriate payment service for ATM withdrawals, where the ATM provider is required to be authorised but is acting on behalf of one or more card issuers, which are not a party to the framework contract with the customer withdrawing money from a payment account? 

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Safeguarding requirements

Are transactions where both the payer and the payee are outside the EEA (e.g. a transfer between China and Hong Kong) outside the scope of the safeguarding requirements or not?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Interpretation of payment instrument

What devices or procedures can be considered as payment instrument as per Art. 4(14) of PSD2.

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Roles that can be assigned to electronic money institutions in certificates

Please clarify which roles may be assigned to electronic money institutions (EU 2015/2366 Art 1(1) b) by qualified trust service providers (QTSPs) in the certificates. There seems to be some contradiction between EU 2015/2366 Art 11(1) and the EBA Opinion on the use of eIDAS certificates under the RTS on SCA and CSC (EBA-Op-2018-7) item 26.

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

The amount of a card payment transaction authorised online in HRK

Please clarify for card payment transactions authorised by the Payment Services User (PSU) in Member State A’s currency online on a web shop of an EU merchant that has an domain extension of Member State A, but that is not a Member State A merchant.The payment service provider is an EU acquirer (not from Member State A).The Member State A’s Payment Services Provider (PSP) issuing the payment card charges the PSU a different amount in Member State A’s currency (different from the amount that has been authorised).The difference between the original and charged amounts is caused by a currency conversion due to a card transactions settlement in another currency (EUR, USD, etc.) in the Payment Scheme.

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Requirement for credit institutions and electronic money institutions wishing to offer PIS and AIS to take out professional indemnity insurance or a comparable guarantee / Obbligo di dotarsi di un'assicurazione per la responsabilità civile o analoga garanzia, per gli Enti creditizi o Istituti di moneta elettronica che vogliono offrire i servizi di PIS e AIS

Can an electronic money institution or a credit institution wishing to offer Payment Initiation Service (PIS) and Account information service (AIS) consider its own funds to be a guarantee that is comparable to professional indemnity insurance (PII)?***IT:   Un Istituto di Moneta elettronica o un Ente creditizio che vuole offrire i servizi di PIS e AIS, può considerare i fondi propri come analoga garanzia rispetto all’assicurazione per la responsabilità civile professionale? 

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: EBA/GL/2017/08 - Guidelines on the criteria on how to stipulate the minimum monetary amount of the professional indemnity insurance

Surcharging

Is a ‘foreign exchange margin’ or 'currency conversion fee'  different from a ‘surcharge’ and do different foreign exchange margins above the ECB mid-market rate not constitute a surcharge?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Immediate Refund by the Payment Service Provider of unauthorised SEPA Direct Debit transactions after 8 weeks.

Our question is related to ‘unauthorised’ transactions, and as from when it is qualified as unauthorised? Is this as soon as any payment service user claims that the transaction is unauthorised?   -Or is this as soon as the payment service provider analysed if the transaction is really unauthorised?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable

Potential inconsistency on the application of Strong Customer Authentication exemptions to AISPs

Shall Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs) always grant Account Information Service Provider (AISPs) to be exempted from Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) according to rules defined in Article 10 of the RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/389), or is the final decision to apply such exemption always up to the ASPSP?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

90 Day Access via Direct Access

Should any solution which involves direct access, whether as a strategic solution to PSD2, or in relation to the obligation to provide a fallback interface, ensure that Account Information Service Providers (AISPs) can access the interface in the same manner as the dedicated interface, specifically on an ongoing basis and for a maximum of 90 days once the customer has provided consent and authenticated using strong customer authentication (SCA)?

  • Legal act: Directive 2015/2366/EU (PSD2)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) 2018/389 - RTS on strong customer authentication and secure communication

Available financial means

Are all the financial means referred in Article 10 of DGSD available to finance measures to preserve the access of depositors to covered deposits according to Article 11.6 of DGSD?

  • Legal act: Directive 2014/49/EU (DGSD)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable