EBA Publishes Work Program for 2020

The two horizontal priorities for policy work, as described in the work program, involve ensuring effective cooperation with third countries and improving a culture of good governance in financial institutions. The following are the six strategic focus areas of the work program:

• Support development of risk reduction package and implementation of the global standards in EU. EBA will work to deliver the Level 2 regulations necessary for implementation of the new Capital Requirements Directive (CRD), the Capital Requirement Regulation (CRR), and the Bank Recovery and Resolution (BRRD), along with the introduction of the Investment Firm Directive (IFD)/Investment Firm Regulation (IFR) regime and the Covered Bonds Directive. EBA will work with EC, and later with the co-legislators, to support the implementation of Basel III standards in EU.

• Provide efficient methodologies and tools for supervisory convergence and stress testing. EBA will start consulting on Pillar 2 revisions, improved incorporation of proportionality, coherence with Pillar 1, and the levels of application policies on capital and liquidity. EBA will continue monitoring own funds and liquidity provisions, with a focus on capital and liability instruments, the termination of grandfathering of own funds instruments, and the use of discretions in the area of liquidity transactions for computation of the liquidity coverage ratio. EBA will also conduct an EU-wide stress test.

• Move toward an integrated EU data hub and a streamlined reporting framework. EBA aims to complete the last phase of the EUCLID project, which will focus on upgrade of the EBA supervisory data platform, which supports data collection, data validation, data integration, and report monitoring. The culmination of this work will establish EBA as an EU-wide data hub at the service of competent authorities and the public. EBA will also work on a feasibility study on an integrated EU reporting framework.

• Contribute to the sound development of financial innovation and sustainability. EBA publish a discussion paper on the incorporation of ESG into risk management and supervision. It will also undertake preparatory work on the classification and prudential treatment of assets from a sustainability perspective.
• Promote an operational framework for resolution. When it comes to the new BRRD, EBA will deliver on its mandates, starting with expediting the ones that are essential to the operationalization of the resolution framework such as on the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL). EBA will also focus on some practical aspects that appear necessary for the execution of resolution decisions, with a focus on bail-in.

• Making anti money laundering (AML) a real priority for EU. EBA, in cooperation with the other ESAs, will strengthen its role in the area of AML/Countering Financing of Terrorism (CFT) supervision by national authorities, following the EBA communication on the AML action plan.

Related Links

• Press Release
• Work Program 2020 (PDF)
• Work Program Overview

Keywords: Europe, EU, Banking, Stress Testing, Work Program 2020, Reporting, Basel III, CRR/CRD, BRRD, Resolution Framework, EBA