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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.

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List of Q&A's

Predetermined amount in case of applications for redemptions, reductions and repurchases by mutuals, cooperative societies, savings institutions or similar institutions for the purposes of Article 77 CRR

Article 32(2) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 (RTS on own funds) states: “Competent authorities may give their permission in advance to an action listed in Article 77 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) for a certain predetermined amount to be redeemed, net of the amount of the subscription of new paid in Common Equity Tier 1 instruments during a period up to one year. That predetermined amount may go up to 2 % of Common Equity Tier 1 capital […]”. 1. Which of the following interpretations is correct? (1) Once permission is given for a certain predetermined amount, any subsequent subscription of new paid-in CET1 instruments during a period up to one year from date of permission increases automatically the total amount that is permitted to be redeemed (i.e. the maximum redemption amount that can be permitted in advance is 2% + x, for which x increases with any amount of new paid-in CET1 instrument additionally subscribed within one year). (2) In addition to the predetermined amount, the advance permission covers solely the amount of subscriptions during the period of one year that are already expected at the moment the permission is granted, i.e. it solely extends the predetermined amount by a fixed amount for the issuances already planned at the moment the permission is granted. (3) The advance permission for redeeming the predetermined amount does not cover redemption of new paid-in Common Equity Tier 1 instruments during a period up to one year. 2. Could it be that, because of an editorial oversight, a comma is missing in the first sentence of Article 32(2) RTS on own funds, before "during a period up to one year"? Setting the comma would consistently restrict not only the recognition of new subscriptions but already the advance permission for redemption to the same period of one year.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 - RTS for Own Funds requirements for institutions
  • ID: 2015_2094
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 05/02/2016

Predetermined amount for market making with partially grandfathered or amortised instruments

An institution has asked for advance permission according to Article 78(1) last subparagraph Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) to carry out repurchases of its own funds instruments for market making purposes. It intends to repurchase up to 3% of the nominal amount of these instruments. Some of these instruments are partially phased-out ('grandfathered' instruments) or already partially amortised. 1. What is in this case the predetermined amount for the limits in Article 78(1) last subparagraph CRR which is, according to Q&A 2014_1352 [as originally published on 8 July 2014] , required to be deducted pursuant to Article 28(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 from the moment the authorisation is granted?(a) 3% of the nominal amount of the instruments (i.e. including phased-out/amortised amounts), or(b) solely 3% of the amount still qualified for own funds (i.e. excluding phased-out/amortised amounts) 2. Do in this case the amounts of the relevant issuance and of total outstanding Additional Tier 1 instruments or Tier 2 instruments refer to(a) the full nominal amount (i.e. including phased-out/amortised amounts), or(b) solely the amount still qualified for own funds (i.e. excluding phased-out/amortised amounts)? 3. If solely the amount still qualified for own funds is considered for the predetermined amount or the limits, what is the maximum amount that the institution can repurchase?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 - RTS for Own Funds requirements for institutions
  • ID: 2015_2095
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 05/02/2016

Own funds – Share premium accounts

There is an agreement for transfer of profit and coverage of losses (i.e. Profit and Loss Transfer Agreement, PLTA)  between the credit institution in question and its mother credit institution, therefore the shares of the credit institution are in the future no longer eligible as a CET1 items (confer Question ID 408/2013 – now archived). In conjunction with the out-phasing of these shares pursuant to the transitional provisions in Article 484 ff CRR, the questions arises if the share premium accounts also have to be out-phased or if they are still eligible as CET 1 instruments according to the provisions laid down in Article 485 para. 2 CRR.Are the conditions set out in Article 28 para. 1 letter (i) CRR met, if a credit institution has also (in addition to CET 1 instruments) T2 instruments which may be repaid before liquidation only with a proportional deduction of the net losses incurred during its lifetime?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2015_1895
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 06/11/2015

Inclusion of insurance undertakings in prudential consolidation

Should an insurance undertaking be included in prudential consolidation according to Art. 18 of CRR?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_383
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 02/10/2015

Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities related to the fair value reserves connected to gains or losses on cash flow hedges

In accordance with Article 33(1)(a) of the Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (CRR), the institutions do not include the fair value reserves related to gains or losses on cash flow hedges in any element of Own Funds (as a result of the specific filter applied). Is it correct to not consider DTA / DTL related to the fair value reserves related to gains or losses on cash flow hedges in the net DTAs deductible from CET1?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2015_1887
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 02/10/2015

Market making in several AT1 or T2 instruments

Where an institution applies for a prior permission for repurchase of several Additional Tier 1 or Tier 2 capital instruments according to Article 78(1), second subparagraph, of the CRR, may the predetermined amount of the permission be set for several instruments or must a predetermined amount be set for each instrument?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 - RTS for Own Funds requirements for institutions
  • ID: 2015_2042
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 25/09/2015

Risk-weighting of Pension Assets

Article 36 of the CRR requires that defined benefit pension fund surpluses be deducted from CET1 - unless the bank has unrestricted access to the surplus and has obtained permission from the competent authority, as Article 41 sets out further. Any such accessible surplus then needs to be risk-weighted for credit risk in accordance with Part Three of the CRR. However the CRR is silent on the risk weighting assets for total pension assets. Should pension funds in total, or just the accessible surplus, be risk weighted?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_1567
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 17/07/2015

Exemption of deduction under transitional arrangements. Calculation of the threshold of Article 470 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)

When fixing the threshold of Article 470 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), must it contain the amount of the excess of deductions from Additional Tier 1 (AT1), caused by the transitional arrangements, which cannot be entirely deducted from AT1 - because this latter’s amount is not large enough in order to allow all the deductions - and which was subsequently deducted from Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1)?

  • 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)
  • ID: 2015_1741
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 26/06/2015

Significance of the term ‘without prejudice’ in Article 86 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)

Article 86 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) sets out a general principle of limitation of minority interests / external resources on Additional Tier 1 capital. This article explicitly provides that this limitation is ‘without prejudice to Article 84(5) and (6)’. Article 84 of the CRR sets a principle of limitation of minority interests in the computation of consolidated Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital. However, the exception under Article 84(6) CRR allows institutions to recognise all minority interests when included in the scope of an Institutional Protection Scheme (IPS) completed with a cross-guarantee scheme. Does the term ‘without prejudice’ mean that the exception for CET1 capital provided for in Article 84(6) can be applied by analogy to the instruments of Article 86 in order to avoid a partial recognition on the Additional Tier 1 capital.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_1415
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 26/06/2015

Deduction of direct holdings of CET 1 instruments of FSEs

Article 45 of CRR specifies for the direct deductions in Article 36(1)(h) and (j) that we may calculate a net-long in the same underlying if positions are in the same book and has a contractual maturity of 1 year. Q1. Could a ‘short’ Total Return Swap (TRS) that hedges the economic risk of a long underlying position be included in the net-long calculation, such that it off-sets the direct deduction? Q2. Does the settlement convention of a TRS have any impact on the regulatory treatment (either/cash or physical)? Total Return Swaps are already mentioned in the definitions of synthetic holdings in Article 15b- of the ‘EBA FINAL draft regulatory technical standards on own funds [Part 3]’, however it remains unclear if this paragraph only constitutes definitions of long positions or whether they can net out. Q3. Could EBA confirm that a short synthetic holding could be netted if it is the exact opposite position of a long synthetic holding?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Regulation (EU) No 241/2014 - RTS for Own Funds requirements for institutions
  • ID: 2014_1658
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 19/06/2015

Maturity matching

Articles 45, 59 and 69 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) each include a condition that “the maturity of the short position matches the maturity of the long position or has a residual maturity of at least one year”, in order for the short position to be recognized for the calculation of the net long position. Please confirm that maturities are deemed to match for the purposes of these provisions where the maturity of the long and the short positions occur within the same calendar quarter.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_253
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 12/06/2015

Reduction of CET1 by absorbing losses which are already accounted as loss brought forward

Is the prior permission of the supervisor required when an institution reduces its CET1 instruments by absorbing losses which were already accounted for as retained losses (i.e. loss brought forward)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2015_1815
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 05/06/2015

Inclusion of interim profits in CET1

If a credit institution includes interim profits in Common Equity Tier 1 capital (with the prior permission from the competent authority in accordance with Article 26(2) of the CRR), can the institution decide that in the following interim period it will not apply for a permission concerning interim profits for that (current) interim period, but to use the (previously permitted) amount of interim profits for the previous interim period? For example, a credit institution received a prior permission from the competent authority and included interim profits reported on 30 June in its CET1 capital. When calculating CET1 capital on 30 September, can it choose not to apply for a prior permission from the competent authority to use interim profits reported on 30 September and, instead, include the amount of interim profits reported on 30 June (the same amount it has included in the calculation in the previous quarter)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_1242
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 08/05/2015

Inclusion of consolidated current and year-end profits in Common Equity Tier 1 Capital

According to Articles 18 and 19 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR), institutions have to carry out a prudential consolidation. The scope of entities included in prudential consolidation can differ from the scope of full financial consolidation. For the purposes of meeting the requirements of Article 26(2) of the CRR, should the current as well as year-end profits resulting from the prudential consolidation also be verified by persons independent of the institution that are responsible for the auditing of the accounts of that institution? Is the General Meeting of Shareholders obliged to confirm the year-end profit for the Group prudentially consolidated, in addition to the year-end profit for the Group financially consolidated?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_1221
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 20/03/2015

Handling of unrealised gains/losses in Own Funds and Exposures

Does unrealised gains/losses refer to all gains and losses for financial instruments accounted at fair value which occured life to date or only unrealised gains/losses of the current year? Will unrealised gaines and losses despite being deducted from own funds be still part of the exposure? How should the position "Losses for the current financial year" be calculated? Without taking into account unrealised gains/losses?

  • 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)
  • ID: 2014_716
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 06/03/2015

Short positions in financial institution capital instruments

(1) Where a bank holds an item which is treated as a financial institution capital instrument under CRR, can a guarantee or credit default swap over that instrument be considered a short position for the purposes of Articles 45(a), 59(a) or 69(a)? (2) Where a bank has an indirect holding of a financial institution capital instrument, can a guarantee or credit default swap over the host item be considered a short position in the underlying capital instrument for the purposes of Articles 45(a), 59(a) or 69(a)?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_1382
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 20/02/2015

Inclusion of interim profits / Deduction of losses in own funds

1. How should the interim profits be calculated for the purposes of inclusion in own funds? E.g. if the bank has monthly P/L as follows: Jan -10, Feb -20, March +100 (Year-to-date +70). The results are not verified by external audit. Should the bank take deduct the losses from Jan and Feb, but ignore the March gain as it is unaudited (capital impact compared to IFRS equity -100) or can the losses be netted with the gains and the YTD gain (unaudited) be filtered out (capital impact -70)? 2. What constitutes 'adequate level of assurance' in context of verification by external auditors? Is a full audit required or is an interim review sufficient?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_384
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 20/02/2015

Capital requirements for a subgroup integrated by a parent holding company in a Member State and its institutions and subsidiary financial institutions

What are the capital requirements for the subgroup and/or any of the undertakings included in it if the Member State: i) imposes capital requirements for the holding company by virtue of a national law? ii) does not impose any additional requirements to those in the CRR? As it is explained in the “background on the question”, we understand that for the second question (ii), the following topics must be clarified: a) What is the scope of the sub-consolidation, i.e. which companies need to be included in the respective sub-consolidation group? b) Are the capital requirements to be applied at the “subsidiary institution” level or at the “parent holding in the member state” level?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2013_521
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 09/01/2015

Treatment of Hedges for Equity-Linked Employee Compensation Schemes and Impact on FSE Capital Deductions

As part of their Corporate Equity Derivatives businesses, European banks are often asked to provide Financial Sector Entity (“FSE”) and non-FSE clients with hedges to their equity-linked employee compensation schemes or share savings plans. Typically in these circumstances the client goes long its own equity price risk synthetically, via purchasing call options or buying a total return swap (“TRS”). The TRS is an ISDA-based derivative contract under which the purchaser (in this case the client) receives the dividend and any price appreciation on the underlying equity security, and the seller (in this case the bank) receives a LIBOR / EURIBOR return plus a spread, along with any price depreciation on the underlying equity security. As the bank is short the client’s equity price risk under the TRS contract, it will typically purchase the client’s physical shares in the market in order to hedge the delta exposure under the sold TRS position. These positions are allocated to the regulatory trading book subject to the applicable requirements, and for the purposes of this discussion it is assumed the short position satisfies either the CRR Art 45 maturity matching criteria or the CRR Art 75 exemption. Where the bank has credit risk to the client (under the TRS), the client will, in most circumstances, be asked to provide cash margin on a daily basis to cover any mark-to-market movements in the bank’s favour. The TRS will be documented using standard ISDA documentation, with the cash collateralisation taking place under a CSA or similar arrangement. Would the TRS be considered an eligible hedge for the purposes of Article 45 under those circumstances?

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_1509
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 19/12/2014

Article 89 of Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 (CRR) – risk weighting and prohibition of qualifying holdings outside the financial sector

This question is about the valuation of qualifying holdings outside the financial sector in order to determine whether the 15 % cap under Article 89 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) is exceeded or not. It is also in relation with the phase out of unrealized gains measured at fair value under Article 468.

  • Legal act: Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR)
  • COM Delegated or Implementing Acts/RTS/ITS/GLs: Not applicable
  • ID: 2014_749
  • Topic: Own funds
  • Date of submission:
  • Published as final Q&A: 19/12/2014