Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Section 1 Common equity tier 1 items and instruments

Article 26 Common Equity Tier 1 items

1. Common Equity Tier 1 items of institutions consist of the following:

(a) capital instruments, provided the conditions laid down in Article 28 or, where applicable, Article 29 are met;

(b) share premium accounts related to the instruments referred to in point (a);

(c) retained earnings;

(d) accumulated other comprehensive income;

(e) other reserves;

(f) funds for general banking risk.

The items referred to in points (c) to (f) shall be recognised as Common Equity Tier 1 only where they are available to the institution for unrestricted and immediate use to cover risks or losses as soon as these occur.

2. For the purposes of point (c) of paragraph 1, institutions may include interim or year-end profits in Common Equity Tier 1 capital before the institution has taken a formal decision confirming the final profit or loss of the institution for the year only with the prior permission of the competent authority. The competent authority shall grant permission where the following conditions are met:

(a) those profits have been verified by persons independent of the institution that are responsible for the auditing of the accounts of that institution;

(b) the institution has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the competent authority that any foreseeable charge or dividend has been deducted from the amount of those profits.

A verification of the interim or year-end profits of the institution shall provide an adequate level of assurance that those profits have been evaluated in accordance with the principles set out in the applicable accounting framework.

3. Competent authorities shall evaluate whether issuances of Common Equity Tier 1 instruments meet the criteria set out in Article 28 or, where applicable, Article 29. With respect to issuances after 31 December 2014, institutions shall classify capital instruments as Common Equity Tier 1 instruments only after permission is granted by the competent authorities, which may consult EBA.

For capital instruments, with the exception of State aid, that are approved as eligible for classification as Common Equity Tier 1 instruments by the competent authority but where, in the opinion of EBA, the compliance with the criteria in Article 28 or, where applicable, Article 29, is materially complex to ascertain, the competent authorities shall explain their reasoning to EBA.

On the basis of information from each competent authority, EBA shall establish, maintain and publish a list of all the forms of capital instruments in each Member State that qualify as Common Equity Tier 1 instruments. EBA shall establish that list and publish it by 1 February 2015 for the first time.

EBA may, after the review process set out in Article 80 and, where there is significant evidence of those instruments not meeting the criteria set out in Article 28 or, where applicable, Article 29, decide to remove non-State aid capital instruments issued after 31 December 2014 from the list and may make an announcement to that effect.

4. EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the meaning of foreseeable when determining whether any foreseeable charge or dividend has been deducted.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 1 February 2015.

Power is delegated to the Commission to adopt the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.

Article 27 Capital instruments of mutuals, cooperative societies, savings institutions or similar institutions in Common Equity Tier 1 items

1. Common Equity Tier 1 items shall include any capital instrument issued by an institution under its statutory terms provided the following conditions are met:

(a) the institution is of a type that is defined under applicable national law and which competent authorities consider to qualify as any of the following:

(i)

a mutual;

(ii)

a cooperative society;

(iii)

a savings institution;

(iv)

a similar institution;

(v)

a credit institution which is wholly owned by one of the institutions referred to in points (i) to (iv) and has approval from the relevant competent authority to make use of the provisions in this Article, provided that, and for as long as, 100 % of the ordinary shares in issue in the credit institution are held directly or indirectly by an institution referred to in those points;

(b) the conditions laid down in Articles 28 or, where applicable, Article 29, are met.

Those mutuals, cooperative societies or savings institutions recognised as such under applicable national law prior to 31 December 2012 shall continue to be classified as such for the purposes of this Part, provided that they continue to meet the criteria that determined such recognition.

2. EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the conditions according to which competent authorities may determine that a type of undertaking recognised under applicable national law qualifies as a mutual, cooperative society, savings institution or similar institution for the purposes of this Part.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 1 February 2015.

Power is delegated to the Commission to adopt the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.

Article 28 Common Equity Tier 1 instruments

1. Capital instruments shall qualify as Common Equity Tier 1 instruments only if all the following conditions are met:

(a) the instruments are issued directly by the institution with the prior approval of the owners of the institution or, where permitted under applicable national law, the management body of the institution;

(b) the instruments are paid up and their purchase is not funded directly or indirectly by the institution;

(c) the instruments meet all the following conditions as regards their classification:

(i)

they qualify as capital within the meaning of Article 22 of Directive 86/635/EEC;

(ii)

they are classified as equity within the meaning of the applicable accounting framework;

(iii)

they are classified as equity capital for the purposes of determining balance sheet insolvency, where applicable under national insolvency law;

(d) the instruments are clearly and separately disclosed on the balance sheet in the financial statements of the institution;

(e) the instruments are perpetual;

(f) the principal amount of the instruments may not be reduced or repaid, except in either of the following cases:

(i)

the liquidation of the institution;

(ii)

discretionary repurchases of the instruments or other discretionary means of reducing capital, where the institution has received the prior permission of the competent authority in accordance with Article 77;

(g) the provisions governing the instruments do not indicate expressly or implicitly that the principal amount of the instruments would or might be reduced or repaid other than in the liquidation of the institution, and the institution does not otherwise provide such an indication prior to or at issuance of the instruments, except in the case of instruments referred to in Article 27 where the refusal by the institution to redeem such instruments is prohibited under applicable national law;

(h) the instruments meet the following conditions as regards distributions:

(i)

there is no preferential distribution treatment regarding the order of distribution payments, including in relation to other Common Equity Tier 1 instruments, and the terms governing the instruments do not provide preferential rights to payment of distributions;

(ii)

distributions to holders of the instruments may be paid only out of distributable items;

(iii)

the conditions governing the instruments do not include a cap or other restriction on the maximum level of distributions, except in the case of the instruments referred to in Article 27;

(iv)

the level of distributions is not determined on the basis of the amount for which the instruments were purchased at issuance, except in the case of the instruments referred to in Article 27;

(v)

the conditions governing the instruments do not include any obligation for the institution to make distributions to their holders and the institution is not otherwise subject to such an obligation;

(vi)

non-payment of distributions does not constitute an event of default of the institution;

(vii)

the cancellation of distributions imposes no restrictions on the institution;

(i) compared to all the capital instruments issued by the institution, the instruments absorb the first and proportionately greatest share of losses as they occur, and each instrument absorbs losses to the same degree as all other Common Equity Tier 1 instruments;

(j) the instruments rank below all other claims in the event of insolvency or liquidation of the institution;

(k) the instruments entitle their owners to a claim on the residual assets of the institution, which, in the event of its liquidation and after the payment of all senior claims, is proportionate to the amount of such instruments issued and is not fixed or subject to a cap, except in the case of the capital instruments referred to in Article 27;

(l) the instruments are not secured, or subject to a guarantee that enhances the seniority of the claim by any of the following:

(i)

the institution or its subsidiaries;

(ii)

the parent undertaking of the institution or its subsidiaries;

(iii)

the parent financial holding company or its subsidiaries;

(iv)

the mixed activity holding company or its subsidiaries;

(v)

the mixed financial holding company and its subsidiaries;

(vi)

any undertaking that has close links with the entities referred to in points (i) to (v);

(m) the instruments are not subject to any arrangement, contractual or otherwise, that enhances the seniority of claims under the instruments in insolvency or liquidation.

The condition set out in point (j) of the first subparagraph shall be deemed to be met, notwithstanding the instruments are included in Additional Tier 1 or Tier 2 by virtue of Article 484(3), provided that they rank pari passu.

2. The conditions laid down in point (i) of paragraph 1 shall be deemed to be met notwithstanding a write down on a permanent basis of the principal amount of Additional Tier 1 or Tier 2 instruments.

The condition laid down in point (f) of paragraph 1 shall be deemed to be met notwithstanding the reduction of the principal amount of the capital instrument within a resolution procedure or as a consequence of a write down of capital instruments required by the resolution authority responsible for the institution.

The condition laid down in point (g) of paragraph 1 shall be deemed to be met notwithstanding the provisions governing the capital instrument indicating expressly or implicitly that the principal amount of the instrument would or might be reduced within a resolution procedure or as a consequence of a write down of capital instruments required by the resolution authority responsible for the institution.

3. The condition laid down in point (h)(iii) of paragraph 1 shall be deemed to be met notwithstanding the instrument paying a dividend multiple, provided that such a dividend multiple does not result in a distribution that causes a disproportionate drag on own funds.

4. For the purposes of point (h)(i) of paragraph 1, differentiated distributions shall only reflect differentiated voting rights. In this respect, higher distributions shall only apply to Common Equity Tier 1 instruments with fewer or no voting rights.

5. EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the following:

(a) the applicable forms and nature of indirect funding of own funds instruments;

(b) Whether and when multiple distributions would constitute a disproportionate drag on own funds;

(c) the meaning of preferential distributions.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 1 February 2015.

Power is delegated to the Commission to adopt the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.

Article 29 Capital instruments issued by mutuals, cooperative societies, savings institutions and similar institutions

1. Capital instruments issued by mutuals, cooperative societies, savings institutions and similar institutions shall qualify as Common Equity Tier 1 instruments only if the conditions laid down in Article 28 with modifications resulting from the application of this Article are met.

2. The following conditions shall be met as regards redemption of the capital instruments:

(a) except where prohibited under applicable national law, the institution shall be able to refuse the redemption of the instruments;

(b) where the refusal by the institution of the redemption of instruments is prohibited under applicable national law, the provisions governing the instruments shall give the institution the ability to limit their redemption;

(c) refusal to redeem the instruments, or the limitation of the redemption of the instruments where applicable, may not constitute an event of default of the institution.

3. The capital instruments may include a cap or restriction on the maximum level of distributions only where that cap or restriction is set out under applicable national law or the statute of the institution.

4. Where the capital instruments provide the owner with rights to the reserves of the institution in the event of insolvency or liquidation that are limited to the nominal value of the instruments, such a limitation shall apply to the same degree to the holders of all other Common Equity Tier 1 instruments issued by that institution.

The condition laid down in the first subparagraph is without prejudice to the possibility for a mutual, cooperative society, savings institution or a similar institution to recognize within Common Equity Tier 1 instruments that do not afford voting rights to the holder and that meet all the following conditions:

(a) the claim of the holders of the non-voting instruments in the insolvency or liquidation of the institution is proportionate to the share of the total Common Equity Tier 1 instruments that those non-voting instruments represent;

(b) the instruments otherwise qualify as Common Equity Tier 1 instruments.

5. Where the capital instruments entitle their owners to a claim on the assets of the institution in the event of its insolvency or liquidation that is fixed or subject to a cap, such a limitation shall apply to the same degree to all holders of all Common Equity Tier 1 instruments issued by the institution.

6. EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the nature of the limitations on redemption necessary where the refusal by the institution of the redemption of own funds instruments is prohibited under applicable national law.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 1 February 2015.

Power is delegated to the Commission to adopt the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.

Article 30 Consequences of the conditions for Common Equity Tier 1 instruments ceasing to be met

The following shall apply where, in the case of a Common Equity Tier 1 instrument, the conditions laid down in Article 28 or, where applicable, Article 29 cease to be met:

(a)

that instrument shall immediately cease to qualify as a Common Equity Tier 1 instrument;

(b)

the share premium accounts that relate to that instrument shall immediately cease to qualify as Common Equity Tier 1 items.

Article 31 Capital instruments subscribed by public authorities in emergency situations

1. In emergency situations, competent authorities may permit institutions to include in Common Equity Tier 1 capital instruments that comply at least with the conditions laid down in points (b) to (e) of Article 28(1) where all the following conditions are met:

(a) the capital instruments are issued after 1 January 2014;

(b) the capital instruments are considered State aid by the Commission;

(c) the capital instruments are issued within the context of recapitalisation measures pursuant to State aid- rules existing at the time;

(d) the capital instruments are fully subscribed and held by the State or a relevant public authority or public-owned entity;

(e) the capital instruments are able to absorb losses;

(f) except for the capital instruments referred to in Article 27, in the event of liquidation, the capital instruments entitle their owners to a claim on the residual assets of the institution after the payment of all senior claims;

(g) there are adequate exit mechanisms of the State or, where applicable, a relevant public authority or public-owned entity;

(h) the competent authority has granted its prior permission and has published its decision together with an explanation of that decision.

2. Upon reasoned request by and in cooperation with the relevant competent authority, EBA shall consider the capital instruments referred to in paragraph 1 as equivalent to Common Equity Tier 1 instruments for the purposes of this Regulation.