25 April 2016

EBA discloses first list of O-SIIs in the EU

The European Banking Authority (EBA) disclosed the first list of all the O-SIIs in the EU, which have been identified on the basis of uniform criteria for the first time. Relevant authorities across the EU jurisdictions have drawn up the list on the basis of the criteria provided by the EBA Guidelines, which define the size, importance (substitutability or financial system infrastructure), complexity (or cross-border activities) and interconnectedness of such institutions.

The EBA Guidelines provide additional flexibility for relevant authorities to apply their supervisory judgment, when deciding to include other institutions, which might have not been automatically identified as O-SIIs. This approach allows for the assessment of all financial systems across the EU in a comparable way, whilst still not excluding those institutions which may be relevant on the basis of specific peculiarities of one EU jurisdiction. The EBA acts as the single point of disclosure for the list of O-SIIs across the EU, while each relevant authority discloses this information for its respective jurisdiction, along with further details on their rationale and identification process. This additional information is key for understanding the specific features of each O-SII and how they have been identified in terms of supervisory judgment, optional indicators used, buffer decisions and phase-in implementation dates.

The identification of institutions as O-SIIs in the EU is based on 2015 data and going forward, updated lists of O-SIIs will be disclosed on an annual basis, along with the definition of any CET1 capital buffer requirements which may need to be set. Any higher capital requirements will become applicable at least one year after the publication of the list of O-SIIs so as to give institutions enough time to adjust to the new buffer requirements.

Press release

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