Guideline (EU) 2022/508 of the European Central Bank of 25 March 2022 amending Guideline (EU) 2017/697 of the European Central Bank on the exercise of options and discretions available in Union law by national competent authorities in relation to less significant institutions (ECB/2017/9) (ECB/2022/12)

NCAs shall exercise the option with regard to exemptions provided for in Article 400(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 in relation to less significant institutions in accordance with this Article and the Annexes. (a) The exposures listed in Article 400(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall be exempted from the application of Article 395(1) of that Regulation for 80 % of the nominal value of the covered bonds, provided that the conditions set out in Article 400(3) of that Regulation are fulfilled. (b) The exposures listed in Article 400(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall be exempted from the application of Article 395(1) of that Regulation for 80 % of their exposure value, provided that the conditions set out in Article 400(3) of that Regulation are fulfilled. (c) The exposures listed in Article 400(2)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 incurred by a credit institution to the undertakings referred to therein, in so far as those undertakings are established in the Union, shall be exempted from the application of Article 395(1) of that Regulation, provided that the conditions set out in Article 400(3) of that Regulation, as further specified in Annex I to this Guideline, are fulfilled, and insofar as those undertakings are covered by the same supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, Directive 2002/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council , or with equivalent standards in force in a third country, as further specified in Annex I to this Guideline. (d) The exposures listed in Article 400(2)(d) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall be exempted from the application of Article 395(1) of that Regulation, provided that the conditions set out in Article 400(3) of that Regulation, as further specified in Annex II to this Guideline, are fulfilled. (e) The exposures listed in Article 400(2)(e) to (l) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall be exempted in full, or in the case of Article 400(2)(i) shall be exempted up to the maximum allowed amount, from the application of Article 395(1) of that Regulation, provided that the conditions set out in Article 400(3) of that Regulation are fulfilled. (f) NCAs shall require less significant institutions to assess whether the conditions specified in Article 400(3) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and in the relevant Annex of this Guideline applicable to the specific exposure, are fulfilled. An NCA may verify this assessment at any time and request credit institutions to submit the documentation referred to in the relevant Annex for this purpose. (g) This Article shall only apply where the relevant Member State has not exercised the option under Article 493(3) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 to grant a full or partial exemption for the specific exposure.

NCAs shall consider that the following indices qualify as major stock indices for the purpose of determining the scope of shares that could qualify as Level 2B assets pursuant to Article 12(1)(c) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61 : (i) the indices listed in Annex I to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1646 ; (ii) any major stock index, not included under point (i), in a Member State or in a third country, identified as such for the purposes of this point by the competent authority of the relevant Member State or third country public authority; (iii) any major stock index, not included under points (i) or (ii), which comprises leading companies in the relevant jurisdiction.

1 NCAs shall allow less significant institutions that in accordance with their statutes of incorporation are unable for reasons of religious observance to hold interest bearing assets to include corporate debt securities as level 2B liquid assets in accordance with the conditions laid down in Article 12(1)(b) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61.

2 NCAs may periodically review the requirement referred to in paragraph 1 and allow an exemption from Article 12(1)(b)(ii) and (iii) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61, where the conditions laid down in Article 12(3) of that Delegated Regulation have been met.

Unless the NCA determines different required stable funding factors, for the off-balance-sheet exposures in the scope of Article 428p(10) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 NCAs shall require less significant institutions to apply to off-balance-sheet exposures not referred to in Chapter 4 of Title IV of Part Six of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 required stable funding factors that correspond to the outflow rates that they apply to related products and services in the context of Article 23 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61 in the liquidity coverage requirement.

Where assets have been segregated in accordance with Article 11(3) of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council and institutions are not able to freely dispose of such assets, NCAs shall require less significant institutions to consider such assets as encumbered for a period corresponding to the term of the liabilities to the institutions’ customers to whom that segregation requirement relates.

NCAs shall require less significant institutions for which permission to apply the simplified net stable funding requirement referred to in Chapter 5 of Title IV of Part Six of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 has been granted, to follow the approach as specified in Article 7c.

NCAs shall require less significant institutions for which permission to calculate the simplified net stable funding ratio referred to in Chapter 5 of Title IV of Part Six of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 has been granted, to follow the approach specified in Article 7d.

This Guideline shall take effect on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. The NCAs shall comply with this Guideline from 1 October 2022.