PRA Proposes Amendments to the Branch Return Form and Guidance

The Branch Return Form informs the PRA’s understanding of branches’ systemic importance and economic functions and facilitates the PRA’s approach to the supervision of branches, as set out in supervisory statement (SS1/18). The proposed changes would improve the quality of information provided by firms and enhance the ability of the Branch Return Form to meet these objectives in SS1/18. The proposals would amend the Branch Return Form in Rule 4.1 of the Incoming Firms and Third Country Firms Part of the PRA Rulebook (Appendices 1 and 2) and create reporting instructions for the form in SS34/15 (Appendices 4 and 5). The draft Branch Return Form and guidance are set out as appendices to CP8/19. In particular, PRA proposes to:

• Provide guidance for completion of the Branch Return Form in SS34/15 alongside the other reporting guidance for deposit takers and investment firms
• Align balance sheet concepts used in the Return with concepts and guidance used in the wider reporting framework of PRA, by requiring assets to be broken down into the standard categories such as Loans and advances and Derivatives
• Amend the reporting content, slightly reducing the number of data points reported by most firms
• Clarify that firms must report within 30 business days
• Replace the current Excel reporting format for the Branch Return Form with the XBRL reporting format

The proposals set out in CP8/19 have been designed in the context of the current UK and EU regulatory framework. PRA has assessed that the proposals will be affected if UK leaves EU with no implementation period in place. All the changes related to the withdrawal of UK from EU should be read in conjunction with the near-final PRA transitional direction published in the policy statement PS5/19. A second version of the proposed rules, which includes relevant changes related to Brexit, has been set out in Appendix 2. As these changes relate to reporting, they should be read in conjunction with SS2/19 on the PRA approach to interpreting reporting and disclosure requirements and regulatory transactions forms after the withdrawal of UK from EU.

Related Links

• Press Release
• CP8/19 (PDF)
• Draft Revised Branch Return Form (XLS)
• SS1/18

Comment Due Date: July 07, 2019

Keywords: Europe, UK, Banking, Branch Return Form, CP8/19, SS1/18, PRA Rulebook, Reporting, PRA