Single Rulebook Q&A
Stakeholders can submit questions on the practical application or implementation of the banking, payment services, AML/CFT and other legislation that falls within the EBA’s remit. This includes the associated delegated and implementing acts, RTS, ITS, guidelines and recommendations.
NB: Unless otherwise specified in Q&As, references to the above legal acts are to be understood as referring to the version of the legal act applicable at the Q&A’s date of publication.
Questions on legal acts referred to under Article 1 (2) of the EBA’s founding Regulation or within the scope of the EBA’s powers that are not listed here can be submitted choosing the ‘Other’ option in the ‘Legal Act’ field of the ‘Submit a question’ page.
Important note to users:
The EBA only starts accepting questions on the application and implementation of the relevant technical standards once these are published in the Official Journal of the European Union. An exception is made for certain draft Implementing Technical Standards on Supervisory Reporting, in order to allow institutions and competent authorities to make the necessary preparations or changes to their reporting systems.
The Q&A process entails close and ongoing interaction between the EBA, the European Commission and competent authorities to ensure that the responses to the questions submitted remain consistent with the European legislative texts.
Any natural or legal person can use the Single Rulebook Q&A tool for submitting questions on the legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2) of the EBA’s founding Regulation and their associated Delegated and Implementing Acts, RTS, ITS, Guidelines, or Recommendations.
Questions should relate to the practical application or implementation of provisions of the relevant legislative act and/or associated delegated or implementing acts, RTS, ITS, guidelines, or recommendations. Questions that require the interpretation of these legal instruments will be forwarded to the European Commission who will prepare answers.
Article 16(b)(2) of the EBA’s founding regulation states that answers to Q&As have no binding force in law. Further, Q&As are not subject to a "comply or explain" process. However, their application is scrutinised by the EBA and competent authorities given their practical significance to achieve a level playing field.
In February 2022 the EBA adjusted its Single Rulebook Q&A process, including the admissibility criteria. The EBA aims to respond to Q&As within 9 months, focusing the process on answering those Q&As which raise material issues relevant for a broad set of stakeholders where additional EBA guidance or clarification would add real value. Where this period is unlikely to be met, the submitter will be informed and additional steps taken to ensure prompt finalisation.
As part of the adjustments, final answers will now be published on Friday mornings - except if this coincides with an EBA public holiday. In this instance, answers will be published on the preceding working day.
Before posting a question, users should read the revised Additional background and guidance for asking questions.
Users should take a note of the following points in particular (some of which reflect changes stemming from the EBA founding Regulation):
- In accordance with Article 16b (3) of the EBA founding Regulation, all questions under review are to be published on the EBA’s website unless such publication is in conflict with the legitimate interest of those persons or would involve risks to the stability of the financial system.
- Rejected questions are published for a period of at least 2 months, to facilitate illustrating the types of questions that are not suitable. Questions are rejected when requirements set out in the Additional background and guidance for asking questions are not met.
- The Q&A pages are organised in a way that encourages users to use the 'Search for Q&As' function and to refer to the guidance mentioned above before submitting any questions.
Questions on CRD/CRR: currently the EBA is developing technical standards and guidelines under the recent amendments to Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR) and Directive 2013/36 (CRD) to implement the CRD6/CRR3 legislative package. The European Commission is also supporting Member States in the transposition of the revised CRR-CRD. The EBA and Commission encourage you to wait before submitting new questions and in particular for questions which may be answered by the outcome of this work. Questions in these areas may be rejected and, if accepted, may not be able to be answered within the nine month period within which the EBA and Commission aim to answer questions.
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.
Q&As on legislation of relevance to more than one ESA, so called "Joint Q&As" can be accessed here.
In February 2022 the EBA adjusted its Single Rulebook Q&A process to ensure that questions are answered within a reasonable time. The admissibility criteria have been adjusted to prioritise Q&As that: are relevant to a broad set of stakeholders; concern a material matter from a prudential, payments, consumer protection, resolution or other perspective within the EBA’s remit; and need EBA guidance or clarification.