02019R2033 — EN — 05.12.2019 — 000.003

This text is meant purely as a documentation tool and has no legal effect. The Union's institutions do not assume any liability for its contents. The authentic versions of the relevant acts, including their preambles, are those published in the Official Journal of the European Union and available in EUR-Lex. Those official texts are directly accessible through the links embedded in this document

►B REGULATION (EU) 2019/2033 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 November 2019 on the prudential requirements of investment firms and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 575/2013, (EU) No 600/2014 and (EU) No 806/2014 (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 314 5.12.2019, p. 1)





Corrected by:









▼B

REGULATION (EU) 2019/2033 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 27 November 2019

on the prudential requirements of investment firms and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 575/2013, (EU) No 600/2014 and (EU) No 806/2014

(Text with EEA relevance)







PART ONE

GENERAL PROVISIONS







TITLE I

SUBJECT MATTER, SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

1. This Regulation lays down uniform prudential requirements which apply to investment firms authorised and supervised under Directive 2014/65/EU and supervised for compliance with prudential requirements under Directive (EU) 2019/2034 in relation to the following: (a) own funds requirements relating to quantifiable, uniform and standardised elements of risk‐to‐firm, risk‐to‐client and risk‐to‐market; (b) requirements limiting concentration risk; (c) liquidity requirements relating to quantifiable, uniform and standardised elements of liquidity risk; (d) reporting requirements related to points (a), (b) and (c); (e) public disclosure requirements.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, an investment firm authorised and supervised under Directive 2014/65/EU, which carries out any of the activities referred to in points (3) and (6) of Section A of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU, shall apply the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 where the undertaking is not a commodity and emission allowance dealer, a collective investment undertaking or an insurance undertaking, and any of the following conditions apply: (a) the total value of the consolidated assets of the investment firm is equal to or exceeds EUR 15 billion, calculated as an average of the previous 12 months excluding the value of the individual assets of any subsidiaries established outside the Union that carry out any of the activities referred to in this subparagraph; (b) the total value of the consolidated assets of the investment firm is less than EUR 15 billion, and the investment firm is part of a group in which the total value of the consolidated assets of all undertakings in the group that individually have total assets of less than EUR 15 billion and that carry out any of the activities referred to in points (3) and (6) of Section A of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU is equal to or exceeds EUR 15 billion, all calculated as an average of the previous 12 months, excluding the value of the individual assets of any subsidiaries established outside the Union that carry out either of the activities referred to in this subparagraph; or (c) the investment firm is subject to a decision by the competent authority in accordance with Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2019/2034.

Investment firms referred to in this paragraph shall be supervised for compliance with prudential requirements under Titles VII and VIII of Directive 2013/36/EU, including for the purposes of the determination of the consolidating supervisor where such investment firms belong to an investment firm group as defined in point (25) of Article 4(1) of this Regulation.

3. The derogation provided for in paragraph 2 does not apply where an investment firm no longer meets any of the thresholds set out in that paragraph, calculated over a period of 12 consecutive months, or where a competent authority so decides in accordance with Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2019/2034. The investment firm shall notify the competent authority without undue delay any breach of a threshold during that period.

4. Investment firms that meet the conditions set out in paragraph 2 shall remain subject to the requirements of Articles 55 and 59.

5. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, competent authorities may allow an investment firm authorised and supervised under Directive 2014/65/EU that carries out any of the activities referred to in points (3) and (6) of Section A of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU to apply the requirements of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 where all of the following conditions are fulfilled: (a) the investment firm is a subsidiary and is included in the supervision on a consolidated basis of a credit institution, a financial holding company or a mixed financial holding company, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 2 of Title II of Part One of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (b) the investment firm notifies the competent authority under this Regulation and the consolidating supervisor, if applicable; (c) the competent authority is satisfied that the application of the own funds requirements of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 on an individual basis to the investment firm and on a consolidated basis to the group, as applicable, is prudentially sound, does not result in a reduction of the own funds requirements of the investment firm under this Regulation, and is not undertaken for the purposes of regulatory arbitrage.

Competent authorities shall inform the investment firm of a decision to allow the application of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and Directive 2013/36/EU pursuant to the first subparagraph within two months from the receipt of a notification referred to in point (b) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, and shall inform EBA thereof. Where a competent authority refuses to allow the application of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and Directive 2013/36/EU, it shall provide full reasons.

Investment firms referred to in this paragraph shall be supervised for compliance with prudential requirements under Titles VII and VIII of Directive 2013/36/EU, including for the purposes of the determination of the consolidating supervisor where such investment firms belong to an investment firm group as defined in point (25) of Article 4(1) of this Regulation.

For the purposes of this paragraph, Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall not apply.

Article 2

Supervisory powers

For the purpose of ensuring compliance with this Regulation, competent authorities shall have the powers and shall follow the procedures set out in Directive (EU) 2019/2034.

Article 3

Application of stricter requirements by investment firms

This Regulation shall not prevent investment firms from holding own funds and their components and liquid assets in excess of, or applying measures that are stricter than, those required by this Regulation.

Article 4

Definitions

1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply: (1) ‘ancillary services undertaking’ means an undertaking, the principal activity of which consists of owning or managing property, managing data‐processing services, or a similar activity which is ancillary to the principal activity of one or more investment firms; (2) ‘asset management company’ means an asset management company as defined in point (19) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (3) ‘clearing member’ means an undertaking established in a Member State which fulfils the definition in point (14) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 1 ); (4) ‘client’ means a client as defined in point (9) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU except that, for the purposes of Part Four of this Regulation, ‘client’ means any counterparty of the investment firm; (5) ‘commodity and emission allowance dealer’ means a commodity and emission allowance dealer as defined in point (150) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (6) ‘commodity derivatives’ means commodity derivatives as defined in point (30) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014; (7) ‘competent authority’ means a competent authority as defined in point (5) of Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/2034; (8) ‘credit institution’ means a credit institution as defined in point (1) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (9) ‘dealing on own account’ means dealing on own account as defined in point (6) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (10) ‘derivatives’ means derivatives as defined in point (29) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014; (11) ‘consolidated situation’ means the situation that results from applying the requirements of this Regulation in accordance with Article 7 to a Union parent investment firm, Union parent investment holding company or Union parent mixed financial holding company as if that undertaking formed, together with all the investment firms, financial institutions, ancillary services undertakings and tied agents in the investment firm group, a single investment firm; for the purpose of this definition, the terms ‘investment firm’, ‘financial institution’, ‘ancillary services undertaking’ and ‘tied agent’ shall also apply to undertakings established in third countries, which, were they established in the Union, would fulfil the definitions of those terms; (12) ‘consolidated basis’ means on the basis of the consolidated situation; (13) ‘execution of orders on behalf of clients’ means execution of orders on behalf of clients as defined in point (5) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (14) ‘financial institution’ means an undertaking other than a credit institution or investment firm, and other than a pure industrial holding company, the principal activity of which is to acquire holdings or to pursue one or more of the activities listed in points (2) to (12) and point (15) of Annex I to Directive 2013/36/EU, including a financial holding company, a mixed financial holding company, an investment holding company, a payment institution within the meaning of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 2 ), and an asset management company, but excluding insurance holding companies and mixed‐activity insurance holding companies as defined in point (g) of Article 212(1) of Directive 2009/138/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 3 ); (15) ‘financial instrument’ means a financial instrument as defined in point (15) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (16) ‘financial holding company’ means a financial holding company as defined in point (20) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (17) ‘financial sector entity’ means a financial sector entity as defined in point (27) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (18) ‘initial capital’ means initial capital as defined in point (18) of Article 3(1) of Directive (EU) 2019/2034; (19) ‘group of connected clients’ means a group of connected clients as defined in point (39) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (20) ‘investment advice’ means investment advice as defined in point (4) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (21) ‘investment advice of an ongoing nature’ means the recurring provision of investment advice as well as the continuous or periodic assessment and monitoring or review of a client portfolio of financial instruments, including of the investments undertaken by the client on the basis of a contractual arrangement; (22) ‘investment firm’ means an investment firm as defined in point (1) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (23) ‘investment holding company’ means a financial institution, the subsidiaries of which are exclusively or mainly investment firms or financial institutions, at least one of such subsidiaries being an investment firm, and which is not a financial holding company as defined in point (20) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (24) ‘investment services and activities’ means investment services and activities as defined in point (2) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (25) ‘investment firm group’ means a group of undertakings which consists of a parent undertaking and its subsidiaries or of undertakings which meet the conditions set out in Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 4 ), of which at least one is an investment firm and which does not include a credit institution; (26) ‘K‐factors’ means own funds requirements set out in Title II of Part Three for risks that an investment firm poses to clients, markets and to itself; (27) ‘assets under management’ or ‘AUM’ means the value of assets that an investment firm manages for its clients under both discretionary portfolio management and nondiscretionary arrangements constituting investment advice of an ongoing nature; (28) ‘client money held’ or ‘CMH’ means the amount of client money that an investment firm holds, taking into account the legal arrangements in relation to asset segregation and irrespective of the national accounting regime applicable to client money held by the investment firm; (29) ‘assets safeguarded and administered’ or ‘ASA’ means the value of assets that an investment firm safeguards and administers for clients, irrespective of whether assets appear on the investment firm’s own balance sheet or are in third‐party accounts; (30) ‘client orders handled’ or ‘COH’ means the value of orders that an investment firm handles for clients, through the reception and transmission of client orders and through the execution of orders on behalf of clients; (31) ‘concentration risk’ or ‘CON’ means the exposures in the trading book of an investment firm to a client or a group of connected clients the value of which exceeds the limits in Article 37(1); (32) ‘clearing margin given’ or ‘CMG’ means the amount of total margin required by a clearing member or qualifying central counterparty, where the execution and settlement of transactions of an investment firm dealing on own account take place under the responsibility of a clearing member or qualifying central counterparty; (33) ‘daily trading flow’ or ‘DTF’ means the daily value of transactions that an investment firm enters through dealing on own account or the execution of orders on behalf of clients in its own name, excluding the value of orders that an investment firm handles for clients through the reception and transmission of client orders and through the execution of orders on behalf of clients which are already taken into account in the scope of client orders handled; (34) ‘net position risk’ or ‘NPR’ means the value of transactions recorded in the trading book of an investment firm; (35) ‘trading counterparty default’ or ‘TCD’ means the exposures in the trading book of an investment firm in instruments and transactions referred to in Article 25 giving rise to the risk of trading counterparty default; (36) ‘current market value’ or ‘CMV’ means the net market value of the portfolio of transactions or securities legs subject to netting in accordance with Article 31, where both positive and negative market values are used in computing CMV; (37) ‘long settlement transactions’ means long settlement transactions as defined in point (2) of Article 272 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (38) ‘margin lending transaction’ means margin lending transactions as defined in point (10) of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2365 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 5 ); (39) ‘management body’ means a management body as defined in point (36) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (40) ‘mixed financial holding company’ means a mixed financial holding company as defined in point (15) of Article 2 of Directive 2002/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 6 ); (41) ‘off‐balance‐sheet item’ means any of the items referred to in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (42) ‘parent undertaking’ means a parent undertaking within the meaning of point (9) of Article 2 and Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU; (43) ‘participation’ means participation as defined in point (35) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (44) ‘profit’ means profit as defined in point (121) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (45) ‘qualifying central counterparty’ or ‘QCCP’ means a qualifying central counterparty as defined in point (88) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (46) ‘portfolio management’ means portfolio management as defined in point (8) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (47) ‘qualifying holding’ means a qualifying holding as defined in point (36) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (48) ‘securities financing transaction’ or ‘SFT’ means SFT as defined in point (11) of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2365; (49) ‘segregated accounts’, for the purposes of Table 1 in Article 15(2), means accounts with entities where client money held by an investment firm is deposited in accordance with Article 4 of Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593 ( 7 ) and, where applicable, where national law provides that, in the event of insolvency or entry into resolution or administration of the investment firm, the client money cannot be used to satisfy claims in relation to the investment firm other than claims by the client; (50) ‘repurchase transaction’ means a repurchase transaction as defined in point (9) of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2015/2365; (51) ‘subsidiary’ means a subsidiary undertaking as defined in point (10) of Article 2 and within the meaning of Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU, including any subsidiary of a subsidiary undertaking of an ultimate parent undertaking; (52) ‘tied agent’ means a tied agent as defined in point (29) of Article 4(1) of Directive 2014/65/EU; (53) ‘total gross revenue’ means the annual operating income of an investment firm, in connection with the investment firm’s investment services and activities it is authorised to perform, including income stemming from interest receivable, from shares and other securities whether fixed yield or variable, from commission and fees, any gain and losses that the investment firm incurs on its trading assets, on assets held at fair value, or from hedging activities, but excluding any income which is not linked to the investment services and activities performed; (54) ‘trading book’ means all positions in financial instruments and commodities held by an investment firm, either with trading intent or in order to hedge positions held with trading intent; (55) ‘positions held with trading intent’ means any of the following: (a) proprietary positions and positions arising from client servicing and market making; (b) positions intended to be resold in the short term; (c) positions intended to benefit from actual or expected short‐term price differences between buying and selling prices or from other price or interest rate variations; (56) ‘Union parent investment firm’ means an investment firm in a Member State which is part of an investment firm group and which has an investment firm or a financial institution as a subsidiary or which holds a participation in such an investment firm or financial institution, and which is not itself a subsidiary of another investment firm authorised in any Member State, or of an investment holding company or mixed financial holding company set up in any Member State; (57) ‘Union parent investment holding company’ means an investment holding company in a Member State which is part of an investment firm group and which is not itself a subsidiary of an investment firm authorised in any Member State or of another investment holding company in any Member State; (58) ‘Union parent mixed financial holding company’ means a parent undertaking of an investment firm group which is a mixed financial holding company as defined in point (15) of Article 2 of Directive 2002/87/EC.

2. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 56 to supplement this Regulation by clarifying the definitions set out in paragraph 1 to: (a) ensure uniform application of this Regulation; (b) take account, in the application of this Regulation, of developments on financial markets.







TITLE II

LEVEL OF APPLICATION OF REQUIREMENTS







CHAPTER 1

Application of requirements on an individual basis

Article 5

General principle

Investment firms shall comply with the requirements laid down in Parts Two to Seven on an individual basis.

Article 6

Exemptions

1. Competent authorities may exempt an investment firm from the application of Article 5 in respect of Parts Two, Three, Four, Six and Seven, where all of the following conditions apply: (a) the investment firm meets the conditions for qualifying as a small and non‐interconnected investment firm set out in Article 12(1); (b) one of the following conditions is satisfied: (i) the investment firm is a subsidiary and is included in the supervision on a consolidated basis of a credit institution, a financial holding company or a mixed financial holding company, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 2 of Title II of Part One of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (ii) the investment firm is a subsidiary and is included in an investment firm group supervised on a consolidated basis in accordance with Article 7; (c) both the investment firm and its parent undertaking are subject to authorisation and supervision by the same Member State; (d) the authorities competent for the supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 or in accordance with Article 7 of this Regulation agree to such an exemption; (e) own funds are distributed adequately between the parent undertaking and the investment firm, and all of the following conditions are satisfied: (i) there is no current or foreseen material practical or legal impediment to the prompt transfer of capital or repayment of liabilities by the parent undertaking; (ii) upon prior approval by the competent authority, the parent undertaking declares that it guarantees the commitments entered into by the investment firm or that the risks in the investment firm are of negligible interest; (iii) the risk evaluation, measurement and control procedures of the parent undertaking include the investment firm; and (iv) the parent undertaking holds more than 50 % of the voting rights attached to shares in the capital of the investment firm or has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the investment firm’s management body.

2. Competent authorities may exempt investment firms from the application of Article 5 in respect of Part Six where all of the following conditions apply: (a) the investment firm meets the conditions for qualifying as a small and non‐interconnected investment firm set out in Article 12(1); (b) the investment firm is a subsidiary and is included in the supervision on a consolidated basis of an insurance or reinsurance undertaking in accordance with Article 228 of Directive 2009/138/EC; (c) both the investment firm and its parent undertaking are subject to authorisation and supervision by the same Member State; (d) the authorities competent for the supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Directive 2009/138/EC agree to such an exemption; (e) own funds are distributed adequately between the parent undertaking and the investment firm and all of the following conditions are satisfied: (i) there is no current or foreseen material practical or legal impediment to the prompt transfer of capital or repayment of liabilities by the parent undertaking; (ii) upon prior approval by the competent authority, the parent undertaking declares that it guarantees the commitments entered into by the investment firm or that the risks in the investment firm are of negligible interest; (iii) the risk evaluation, measurement and control procedures of the parent undertaking include the investment firm; and (iv) the parent undertaking holds more than 50 % of the voting rights attached to shares in the capital of the investment firm or has the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the investment firm’s management body.

3. Competent authorities may exempt investment firms from the application of Article 5 in respect of Part Five where all of the following conditions are satisfied: (a) the investment firm is included in the supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Chapter 2 of Title II of Part One of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 or is included in an investment firm group for which Article 7(3) of this Regulation applies and the exemption provided for in Article 7(4) does not apply; (b) the parent undertaking, on a consolidated basis, monitors and has oversight at all times over the liquidity positions of all institutions and investment firms within the group or sub‐group that are subject to a waiver and ensures a sufficient level of liquidity for all of those institutions and investment firms; (c) the parent undertaking and the investment firm have entered into contracts that, to the satisfaction of the competent authorities, provide for the free movement of funds between the parent undertaking and the investment firm to enable them to meet their individual obligations and joint obligations as they become due; (d) there is no current or foreseen material, practical or legal impediment to the fulfilment of the contracts referred to in point (c); (e) the authorities competent for the supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 or in accordance with Article 7 of this Regulation agree to such an exemption.







CHAPTER 2

Prudential consolidation and exemptions for an investment firm group

Article 7

Prudential consolidation

1. Union parent investment firms, Union parent investment holding companies and Union parent mixed financial holding companies shall comply with the obligations laid down in Parts Two, Three, Four, Six and Seven on the basis of their consolidated situation. The parent undertaking and those of its subsidiaries that are subject to this Regulation shall set up a proper organisational structure and appropriate internal control mechanisms in order to ensure that the data required for consolidation are duly processed and forwarded. In particular, the parent undertaking shall ensure that subsidiaries that are not subject to this Regulation implement arrangements, processes and mechanisms to ensure proper consolidation.

2. For the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Article, when applying Part Two on a consolidated basis, the rules laid down in Title II of Part Two of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall also apply to investment firms.

For that purpose, when applying the provisions of Article 84(1), Article 85(1) and Article 87(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 only the references to Article 92(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall apply and shall consequently be read as referring to the own funds requirements set out under the corresponding provisions in this Regulation.

3. Union parent investment firms, Union parent investment holding companies and Union parent mixed financial companies shall comply with the obligations laid down in Part Five on the basis of their consolidated situations.

4. By way of derogation from paragraph 3, competent authorities may exempt the parent undertaking from compliance with that paragraph, taking into account the nature, scale and complexity of the investment firm group.

5. EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the details of the scope and methods for prudential consolidation of an investment firm group, in particular for the purpose of calculating the fixed overheads requirement, the permanent minimum capital requirement, the K‐factor requirement on the basis of the consolidated situation of the investment firm group, and the method and necessary details to properly implement paragraph 2.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 26 December 2020.

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

Article 8

The group capital test

1. By way of derogation from Article 7, competent authorities may allow the application of this Article in the case of group structures which are deemed to be sufficiently simple, provided that there are no significant risks to clients or to market stemming from the investment firm group as a whole that would otherwise require supervision on a consolidated basis. Competent authorities shall notify EBA when they allow the application of this Article.

2. For the purposes of this Article, the following shall apply: (a) ‘own funds instruments’ means own funds as defined in Article 9 of this Regulation, without applying the deductions referred to in point (i) of Article 36(1), point (d) of Article 56, and point (d) of Article 66 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (b) the terms ‘investment firm’, ‘financial institution’, ‘ancillary services undertaking’ and ‘tied agent’ shall also apply to undertakings established in third countries, which, were they established in the Union, would fulfil the definitions of those terms in Article 4.

3. Union parent investment firms, Union parent investment holding companies, Union parent mixed financial holding companies and any other parent undertakings that are investment firms, financial institutions, ancillary services undertakings or tied agents in the investment firm group shall hold at least enough own funds instruments to cover the sum of the following: (a) the sum of the full book value of all of their holdings, subordinated claims and instruments referred to in point (i) of Article 36(1), point (d) of Article 56, and point (d) of Article 66 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 in investment firms, financial institutions, ancillary services undertakings and tied agents in the investment firm group; and (b) the total amount of all of their contingent liabilities in favour of investment firms, financial institutions, ancillary services undertakings and tied agents in the investment firm group.

4. Competent authorities may allow a Union parent investment holding company or a Union parent mixed financial holding company and any other parent undertaking that is an investment firm, a financial institution, an ancillary services undertaking or a tied agent in the investment firm group, to hold a lower amount of own funds than the amount calculated under paragraph 3, provided that this amount is no lower than the sum of the own funds requirements imposed on an individual basis on its subsidiary investment firms, financial institutions, ancillary services undertakings and tied agents, and the total amount of any contingent liabilities in favour of those entities.

For the purposes of this paragraph, the own funds requirements for subsidiary undertakings as referred to in the first subparagraph which are located in third countries shall be notional own funds requirements that ensure a satisfactory level of prudence to cover for the risks arising from those subsidiary undertakings, as approved by the relevant competent authorities.

5. Union parent investment firms, Union parent investment holding companies, and Union parent mixed financial holding companies shall have systems in place to monitor and control the sources of capital and funding of all investment firms, investment holding companies, mixed financial holding companies, financial institutions, ancillary services undertakings and tied agents within the investment firm group.







PART TWO

OWN FUNDS

Article 9

Own funds composition

1. Investment firms shall have own funds consisting of the sum of their Common Equity Tier 1 capital, Additional Tier 1 capital and Tier 2 capital, and shall meet all the following conditions at all times: (a) , (b) , (c) ,

where:

(i) Common Equity Tier 1 capital is defined in accordance with Chapter 2 of Title I of Part Two of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, Additional Tier 1 capital is defined in accordance with Chapter 3 of Title I of Part Two of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, and Tier 2 capital is defined in accordance with Chapter 4 of Title I of Part Two of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; and

(ii) D is defined in Article 11.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1: (a) the deductions referred to in point (c) of Article 36(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall apply in full, without the application of Articles 39 and 48 of that Regulation; (b) the deductions referred to in point (e) of Article 36(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall apply in full, without the application of Article 41 of that Regulation; (c) the deductions referred to in point (h) of Article 36(1), point (c) of Article 56, and point (c) of Article 66 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, insofar as they relate to holdings of capital instruments which are not held in the trading book, shall apply in full, without the application of the mechanisms provided for in Articles 46, 60 and 70 of that Regulation; (d) the deductions referred to in point (i) of Article 36(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall apply in full, without the application of Article 48 of that Regulation; (e) the following provisions shall not apply to the determination of own funds of investment firms: (i) Article 49 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (ii) the deductions referred to in point (h) of Article 36(1), point (c) of Article 56, point (c) of Article 66 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and the related provisions in Articles 46, 60 and 70 of that Regulation, insofar as those deductions relate to holdings of capital instruments held in the trading book; (iii) the trigger event referred to in point (a) of Article 54(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; the trigger event shall instead be specified by the investment firm in the terms of the Additional Tier 1 instrument referred to in paragraph 1; (iv) the aggregate amount referred to in point (a) of Article 54(4) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; the amount to be written down or converted shall be the full principal amount of the Additional Tier 1 instrument referred to in paragraph 1.

3. Investment firms shall apply the relevant provisions set out in Chapter 6 of Title I of Part Two of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 when determining the own funds requirements pursuant to this Regulation. In applying those provisions, the supervisory permission in accordance with Articles 77 and 78 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 shall be deemed to be granted if one of the conditions set out in point (a) of Article 78(1) or in Article 78(4) of that Regulation is fulfilled.

4. For the purpose of applying point (a) of paragraph 1, for investment firms which are not legal persons or joint‐stock companies or which meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) of this Regulation, competent authorities may, after consulting the EBA, permit further instruments or funds to qualify as own funds for those investment firms, provided that those instruments or funds also qualify for treatment under Article 22 of Council Directive 86/635/EEC ( 8 ). On the basis of information received from each competent authority, EBA, together with ESMA, shall establish, maintain and publish a list of all the forms of instruments or funds in each Member State that qualify as such own funds. The list shall be published for the first time by 26 December 2020.

5. Holdings of own funds instruments of a financial sector entity within an investment firm group shall not be deducted for the purpose of calculating own funds of any investment firm in the group on an individual basis, provided that all of the following conditions are met: (a) there is no current or foreseen material, practical or legal impediment to the prompt transfer of capital or repayment of liabilities by the parent undertaking; (b) the risk evaluation, measurement and control procedures of the parent undertaking include the financial sector entity; (c) the derogation provided for in Article 8 is not used by the competent authorities.

Article 10

Qualifying holdings outside the financial sector

1. For the purposes of this Part, investment firms shall deduct amounts in excess of the limits specified in points (a) and (b) from the determination of Common Equity Tier 1 items referred to in Article 26 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013: (a) a qualifying holding, the amount of which exceeds 15 % of the own funds of the investment firm calculated in accordance with Article 9 of this Regulation but without applying the deduction referred to in point (k)(i) of Article 36(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, in an undertaking which is not a financial sector entity; (b) the total amount of the qualifying holdings of an investment firm in undertakings other than financial sector entities that exceeds 60 % of its own funds calculated in accordance with Article 9 of this Regulation but without applying the deduction referred to in point (k)(i) of Article 36(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

2. Competent authorities may prohibit an investment firm from having qualifying holdings as referred to in paragraph 1 where the amount of those holdings exceed the percentages of own funds laid down in that paragraph. Competent authorities shall make public their decision exercising this power without delay.

3. Shares in undertakings other than financial sector entities shall not be included in the calculation specified in paragraph 1 where any of the following conditions is met: (a) those shares are held temporarily during a financial assistance operation as referred to in Article 79 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (b) the holding of those shares is an underwriting position held for five working days or fewer; (c) those shares are held in the own name of the investment firm and on behalf of others.

4. Shares which are not financial fixed assets as referred to in Article 35(2) of Directive 86/635/EEC shall not be included in the calculation specified in paragraph 1 of this Article.







PART THREE

CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS







TITLE I

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

Article 11

Own funds requirements

1. Investment firms shall at all times have own funds in accordance with Article 9 which amount to at least D, where D is defined as the highest of the following: (a) their fixed overheads requirement calculated in accordance with Article 13; (b) their permanent minimum capital requirement in accordance with Article 14; or (c) their K‐factor requirement calculated in accordance with Article 15.

2. By way of derogation from paragraph 1, where an investment firm meets the conditions for qualifying as a small and non‐interconnected investment firm set out in Article 12(1), D shall be defined as the highest of the amounts specified in points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1.

3. Where competent authorities consider that there has been a material change in the business activities of an investment firm, they may require the investment firm to be subject to a different own funds requirement referred to in this Article, in accordance with Title IV, Chapter 2, Section 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/2034.

4. Investment firms shall notify the competent authority as soon as they become aware that they no longer satisfy or will no longer satisfy the requirements of this Article.

Article 12

Small and non‐interconnected investment firms

1. Investment firms shall be deemed to be small and non‐interconnected investment firms for the purposes of this Regulation where they meet all of the following conditions: (a) AUM measured in accordance with Article 17 is less than EUR 1,2 billion; (b) COH measured in accordance with Article 20 is less than either: (i) EUR 100 million/day for cash trades; or (ii) EUR 1 billion/day for derivatives; (c) ASA measured in accordance with Article 19 is zero; (d) CMH measured in accordance with Article 18 is zero; (e) DTF measured in accordance with Article 33 is zero; (f) NPR or CMG measured in accordance with Articles 22 and 23 is zero; (g) TCD measured in accordance with Article 26 is zero; (h) the on‐ and off‐balance‐sheet total of the investment firm is less than EUR 100 million; (i) the total annual gross revenue from investment services and activities of the investment firm is less than EUR 30 million, calculated as an average on the basis of the annual figures from the two‐year period immediately preceding the given financial year.

By way of derogation from the provisions of Title II, for the purposes of points (a), (b), (c), (e), (f), insofar as that point relates to NPR, and (g) of the first subparagraph, end‐of‐day values shall apply.

For the purposes of point (f) of the first subparagraph, insofar as that point relates to CMG, intraday values shall apply.

For the purposes of point (d) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, and without prejudice to Article 16(9) of Directive 2014/65/EU and Articles 2 and 4 of Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/593, intraday values shall apply, except where there has been an error in recordkeeping or in the reconciliation of accounts that incorrectly indicated that an investment firm breached the zero threshold referred to in point (d) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph and which is resolved before the end of the business day. The investment firm shall notify the competent authority without delay of the error, the reasons for its occurrence and its correction.

For the purposes of points (h) and (i) of the first subparagraph, the levels at the end of the last financial year for which accounts have been finalised and approved by the management body shall apply. Where accounts have not been finalised and approved after six months from the end of the last financial year, an investment firm shall use provisional accounts.

Investment firms may measure the values under points (a) and (b) of the first subparagraph by using the methods specified under Title II, with the exception that the measurement shall be done over 12 months, without the exclusion of the three most recent monthly values. Investment firms that choose this measurement method shall notify the competent authority accordingly and shall apply the chosen method for a continuous period of no less than 12 consecutive months.

2. The conditions set out in points (a), (b), (h) and (i) of paragraph 1 shall apply on a combined basis for all investment firms that are part of a group. For the purpose of measuring the total annual gross revenue referred to in point (i) of paragraph 1, those investment firms may exclude any double counting that may arise in respect of gross revenues generated within the group.

The conditions set out in points (c) to (g) of paragraph 1 shall apply to each investment firm on an individual basis.

3. Where an investment firm no longer meets all the conditions set out in paragraph 1, it shall cease to be considered to be a small and non‐interconnected investment firm, with immediate effect.

By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, where an investment firm no longer meets the conditions set out in points (a), (b), (h) or (i) of paragraph 1 but continues to meet the conditions set out in points (c) to (g) of that paragraph, it shall cease to be considered to be a small and non‐interconnected investment firm after a period of three months, calculated from the date on which the threshold was exceeded. The investment firm shall notify the competent authority without undue delay of any breach of a threshold.

4. Where an investment firm which has not met all of the conditions set out in paragraph 1 subsequently meets them, it shall be considered to be a small and non‐interconnected investment firm only after a period of six months from the date on which those conditions are met, provided that no breach of a threshold has occurred during that period and the investment firm has notified the competent authority accordingly without delay.

Article 13

Fixed overheads requirement

1. For the purposes of point (a) of Article 11(1), the fixed overheads requirement shall amount to at least one quarter of the fixed overheads of the preceding year. Investment firms shall use figures resulting from the applicable accounting framework.

2. Where the competent authority considers that there has been a material change in the activities of an investment firm, the competent authority may adjust the amount of capital referred to in paragraph 1.

3. Where an investment firm has not been in business for one year from the date on which it started providing investment services or performing investment activities, it shall use, for the purpose of calculation referred to in paragraph 1, the projected fixed overheads included in its projections for the first 12 months’ trading, as submitted with its application for authorisation.

4. EBA, in consultation with ESMA, shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to supplement the calculation of the requirement referred to in paragraph 1 which includes at least the following items for deduction: (a) staff bonuses and other remuneration, to the extent that they depend on the net profit of the investment firm in the respective year; (b) employees’, directors’ and partners’ shares in profits; (c) other appropriations of profits and other variable remuneration, to the extent that they are fully discretionary; (d) shared commission and fees payable which are directly related to commission and fees receivable, which are included within total revenue, and where the payment of the commission and fees payable is contingent on the actual receipt of the commission and fees receivable; (e) fees to tied agents; (f) non‐recurring expenses from non‐ordinary activities.

EBA shall also specify for the purposes of this Article the notion of a material change.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 26 December 2020.

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

Article 14

Permanent minimum capital requirement

For the purposes of point (b) of Article 11(1), the permanent minimum capital requirement shall amount to at least the levels of initial capital specified in Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2019/2034.







TITLE II

K-FACTOR REQUIREMENT







CHAPTER 1

General principles

Article 15

K‐factor requirement and applicable coefficients

1. For the purposes of point (c) of Article 11(1), the K‐factor requirement shall amount to at least the sum of the following: (a) Risk‐to‐Client (RtC) K‐factors calculated in accordance with Chapter 2; (b) Risk‐to‐Market (RtM) K‐factors calculated in accordance with Chapter 3; (c) Risk‐to‐Firm (RtF) K‐factors calculated in accordance with Chapter 4.

2. The following coefficients shall apply to the corresponding K‐factors:



Table 1 K‐FACTORS COEFFICIENT Assets under management under both discretionary portfolio management and nondiscretionary advisory arrangements of an ongoing nature K‐AUM 0,02 % Client money held K‐CMH (on segregated accounts) 0,4 % K‐CMH (on non‐segregated accounts) 0,5 % Assets safeguarded and administered K‐ASA 0,04 % Client orders handled K‐COH cash trades 0,1 % K‐COH derivatives 0,01 % Daily trading flow K‐DTF cash trades 0,1 % K‐DTF derivatives 0,01 %

3. Investment firms shall monitor the value of their K‐factors for any trends that could leave them with a materially different own funds requirement for the purposes of Article 11 for the following reporting period under Part Seven and shall notify their competent authority of that materially different own funds requirement.

4. Where competent authorities consider that there has been a material change in the business activities of an investment firm that impacts the amount of a relevant K‐factor, they may adjust the corresponding amount in accordance with point (a) of Article 39(2) of Directive (EU) 2019/2034.

5. In order to ensure the uniform application of this Regulation and to take account of developments in financial markets, EBA shall, in consultation with ESMA, develop draft regulatory technical standards to: (a) specify the methods for measuring the K‐factors in Title II of Part Three; (b) specify the notion of segregated accounts for the purposes of this Regulation for the conditions that ensure the protection of client money in the event of the failure of an investment firm; (c) specify adjustments to the K‐DTF coefficients referred to in Table 1 of paragraph 2 of this Article in the event that, in stressed market condition as referred to in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/578 ( 9 ), the K‐DTF requirements seem overly restrictive and detrimental to financial stability.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 26 December 2020.

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







CHAPTER 2

RtC K‐factors

Article 16

RtC K‐factor requirement

The RtC K‐factor requirement is determined by the following formula:

K‐AUM + K‐CMH + K‐ASA + K‐COH

where:

K‐AUM is equal to AUM measured in accordance with Article 17, multiplied by the corresponding coefficient in Article 15(2);

K‐CMH is equal to CMH measured in accordance with Article 18, multiplied by the corresponding coefficient in Article 15(2);

K‐ASA is equal to ASA measured in accordance with Article 19, multiplied by the corresponding coefficient in Article 15(2);

K‐COH is equal to COH measured in accordance with Article 20, multiplied by the corresponding coefficient in Article 15(2).

Article 17

Measuring AUM for the purpose of calculating K‐AUM

1. For the purpose of calculating K‐AUM, AUM shall be the rolling average of the value of the total monthly assets under management, measured on the last business day of each of the previous 15 months converted into the entities’ functional currency at that time, excluding the three most recent monthly values.

AUM shall be the arithmetic mean of the remaining 12 monthly values.

K‐AUM shall be calculated on the first business day of each month.

2. Where the investment firm has formally delegated the management of assets to another financial entity, those assets shall be included in the total amount of AUM measured in accordance with paragraph 1.

Where another financial entity has formally delegated the management of assets to the investment firm, those assets shall be excluded from the total amount of assets under management measured in accordance with paragraph 1.

Where an investment firm has been managing assets for less than 15 months, or where it has done so for a longer period as a small and non‐interconnected investment firm and now exceeds the threshold for AUM, it shall use historical data for AUM for the period specified under paragraph 1 as soon as such data becomes available to calculate K‐AUM. The competent authority may replace missing historical data points by regulatory determinations based on the business projections of the investment firm submitted in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2014/65/EU.

Article 18

Measuring CMH for the purpose of calculating K‐CMH

1. For the purpose of calculating K‐CMH, CMH shall be the rolling average of the value of total daily client money held, measured at the end of each business day for the previous nine months, excluding the three most recent months.

CMH shall be the arithmetic mean of the daily values from the remaining six months.

K‐CMH shall be calculated on the first business day of each month.

2. Where an investment firm has been holding client money for less than nine months, it shall use historical data for CMH for the period specified under paragraph 1 as soon as such data becomes available to calculate K‐CMH.

The competent authority may replace missing historical data points by regulatory determinations based on the business projections of the investment firm submitted in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2014/65/EU.

Article 19

Measuring ASA for the purpose of calculating K‐ASA

1. For the purpose of calculating K‐ASA, ASA shall be the rolling average of the value of the total daily assets safeguarded and administered, measured at the end of each business day for the previous nine months, excluding the three most recent months.

ASA shall be the arithmetic mean of the daily values from the remaining six months.

K‐ASA shall be calculated on the first business day of each month.

2. Where an investment firm has formally delegated the tasks of safeguarding and administration of assets to another financial entity, or where another financial entity has formally delegated such tasks to the investment firm, those assets shall be included in the total amount of ASA which is measured in accordance with paragraph 1.

3. Where an investment firm has been safeguarding and administering assets for less than six months, it shall use historical data for ASA for the period specified under paragraph 1 as soon as such data becomes available to calculate K‐ASA. The competent authority may replace missing historical data points by regulatory determinations based on the business projections of the investment firm submitted in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2014/65/EU.

Article 20

Measuring COH for the purpose of calculating K‐COH

1. For the purpose of calculating K‐COH, COH shall be the rolling average of the value of the total daily client orders handled, measured throughout each business day over the previous six months, excluding the three most recent months.

COH shall be the arithmetic mean of the daily values from the remaining three months.

K‐COH shall be calculated on the first business day of each month.

2. COH shall be measured as the sum of the absolute value of buys and the absolute value of sells for both cash trades and derivatives in accordance with the following: (a) for cash trades, the value is the amount paid or received on each trade; (b) for derivatives, the value of the trade is the notional amount of the contract.

The notional amount of interest rate derivatives shall be adjusted for the time to maturity (in years) of those contracts. The notional amount shall be multiplied by the duration set out in the following formula:

Duration = time to maturity(in years) / 10

Without prejudice to the fifth subparagraph, COH shall include transactions executed by investment firms providing portfolio management services on behalf of investment funds.

COH shall include transactions which arise from investment advice in respect of which an investment firm does not calculate K‐AUM.

COH shall exclude transactions handled by the investment firm that arise from the servicing of a client’s investment portfolio where the investment firm already calculates K‐AUM in respect of that client’s investments or where that activity relates to the delegation of management of assets to the investment firm not contributing to the AUM of that investment firm by virtue of Article 17(2).

COH shall exclude transactions executed by the investment firm in its own name either for itself or on behalf of a client.

Investment firms may exclude from the measurement of COH any orders which have not been executed, where such non‐execution is due to the timely cancellation of the order by the client.

3. Where an investment firm has been handling client orders for less than six months, or has done so for a longer period as a small and non‐interconnected investment firm, it shall use historical data for COH for the period specified under paragraph 1 as soon as such data becomes available to calculate K‐COH. The competent authority may replace missing historical data points by regulatory determinations based on the business projections of the investment firm submitted in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2014/65/EU.







CHAPTER 3

RtM K‐Factors

Article 21

RtM K‐factor requirement

1. The RtM K‐factor requirement for the trading book positions of an investment firm dealing on own account, whether for itself or on behalf of a client shall be either K‐NPR calculated in accordance with Article 22 or K‐CMG calculated in accordance with Article 23.

2. Investment firms shall manage their trading book in accordance with Chapter 3 of Title I of Part Three of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

3. The RtM K‐factor requirement applies to all trading book positions, which include in particular positions in debt instruments (including securitisation instruments), equity instruments, collective investment undertakings (CIUs), foreign exchange and gold, and commodities (including emission allowances).

4. For the purpose of calculating the RtM K‐factor requirement, an investment firm shall include positions other than trading book positions where those give rise to foreign exchange risk or commodity risk.

Article 22

Calculating K‐NPR

For the purpose of calculating K‐NPR, the own funds requirement for the trading book positions of an investment firm dealing on own account, whether for itself or on behalf of a client, shall be calculated using one of the following approaches:

(a) the standardised approach set out in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of Title IV of Part Three of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;

(b) the alternative standardised approach set out in Chapter 1a of Title IV of Part Three of the Regulation No (EU) No 575/2013;

(c) the alternative internal model approach set out in Chapter 1b of Title IV of Part Three of the Regulation No (EU) No 575/2013.

Article 23

Calculating K‐CMG

1. For the purposes of Article 21, the competent authority shall allow an investment firm to calculate K‐CMG for all positions that are subject to clearing, or on a portfolio basis, where the whole portfolio is subject to clearing or margining, under the following conditions: (a) the investment firm is not part of a group containing a credit institution; (b) the clearing and settlement of these transactions take place under the responsibility of a clearing member of a QCCP and that clearing member is a credit institution or an investment firm referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation, and the transactions are either centrally cleared in a QCCP or otherwise settled on a delivery versus payment basis under the responsibility of that clearing member; (c) the calculation of the total margin required by the clearing member is based on a margin model of the clearing member; (d) the investment firm has demonstrated to the competent authority that the choice of calculating RtM with K‐CMG is justified by certain criteria, which may include the nature of the main activities of the investment firm which shall essentially be trading activities subject to clearing and margining under the responsibility of a clearing member, and the fact that other activities performed by the investment firm are immaterial in comparison to those main activities; and (e) the competent authority has assessed that the choice of the portfolio(s) subject to K‐CMG has not been made with a view to engaging in regulatory arbitrage of the own funds requirements in a disproportionate or prudentially unsound manner.

For the purpose of point (c) of the first subparagraph, the competent authority shall carry out a regular assessment to confirm that the margin model leads to margin requirements that reflect the risk characteristics of the products the investment firms trade in and takes into account the interval between margin collections, market liquidity and the possibility of changes over the duration of the transaction.

The margin requirements shall be sufficient to cover losses that may result from at least 99 % of the exposures movements over an appropriate time horizon with at least a two‐business days holding period. The margin models used by that clearing member to call the margin referred to in point (c) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph shall always be designed to achieve a level of prudence similar to that required in the provisions on margin requirements in Article 41 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012.

2. K‐CMG shall be the third highest amount of total margin required on a daily basis by the clearing member from the investment firm over the preceding three months, multiplied by a factor of 1,3.

3. EBA, in consultation with ESMA, shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the calculation of the amount of the total margin required and the method of calculation of K‐CMG as referred to in paragraph 2, in particular where K‐CMG is applied on a portfolio basis, and the conditions for the fulfilment of the provisions in point (e) of paragraph 1.

EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 26 December 2020.

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







CHAPTER 4

RtF K‐factors

Article 24

RtF K‐factor requirement

The RtF K‐factor requirement is determined by the following formula:

K-TCD + K-DTF + K-CON

where:

K‐TCD is equal to the amount calculated in accordance with Article 26;

K‐DTF is equal to DTF measured in accordance with Article 33, multiplied by the corresponding coefficient established in Article 15(2) and

K‐CON is equal to the amount calculated in accordance with Article 39.

K‐TCD and K‐CON shall be based on the transactions recorded in the trading book of an investment firm dealing on own account, whether for itself or on behalf of a client.

K‐DTF shall be based on the transactions recorded in the trading book of an investment firm dealing on own account, whether for itself or on behalf of a client, and the transactions that an investment firm enters into through the execution of orders on behalf of clients in its own name.







Section 1

Trading counterparty default

Article 25

Scope

1. This Section applies to the following contracts and transactions: (a) derivative contracts listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, with the exception of the following: (i) derivative contracts directly or indirectly cleared through a central counterparty (CCP) where all of the following conditions are met: — the positions and assets of the investment firm related to those contracts are distinguished and segregated, at the level of both the clearing member and the CCP, from the positions and assets of both the clearing member and the other clients of that clearing member and, as a result of that distinction and segregation, those positions and assets are bankruptcy remote under national law in the event of the default or insolvency of the clearing member or one or more of its other clients, — laws, regulations, rules and contractual arrangements applicable to or binding the clearing member facilitate the transfer of the client’s positions relating to those contracts and of the corresponding collateral to another clearing member within the applicable margin period of risk in the event of default or insolvency of the original clearing member, — the investment firm has obtained an independent, written and reasoned legal opinion which concludes that, in the event of a legal challenge, the investment firm would bear no losses on account of the insolvency of its clearing member or of any of its clearing member’s clients; (ii) exchange‐traded derivative contracts; (iii) derivative contracts held for hedging a position of the investment firm resulting from a non‐trading book activity; (b) long settlement transactions; (c) repurchase transactions; (d) securities or commodities lending or borrowing transactions; (e) margin lending transactions; (f) any other type of SFTs; (g) credits and loans referred to in point (2) of Section B of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU, if the investment firm is executing the trade in the name of the client or receiving and transmitting the order without executing it.

For the purposes of point (a)(i) of the first subparagraph, derivative contracts directly or indirectly cleared through a QCCP shall be deemed to meet the conditions set out in that point.

2. Transactions with the following types of counterparties shall be excluded from the calculation of K‐TCD: (a) central governments and central banks, where the underlying exposures would receive a 0 % risk weight under Article 114 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (b) multilateral development banks listed in Article 117(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (c) international organisations listed in Article 118 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

3. Subject to the prior approval of the competent authorities, an investment firm may exclude from the scope of the calculation of K‐TCD transactions with a counterparty which is its parent undertaking, its subsidiary, a subsidiary of its parent undertaking or an undertaking linked by a relationship within the meaning of Article 22(7) of Directive 2013/34/EU. Competent authorities shall grant approval if the following conditions are fulfilled: (a) the counterparty is a credit institution, an investment firm, or a financial institution, subject to appropriate prudential requirements; (b) the counterparty is included in the same prudential consolidation as the investment firm on a full basis in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 or Article 7 of this Regulation, or the counterparty and the investment firm are supervised for compliance with the group capital test in accordance with Article 8 of this Regulation; (c) the counterparty is subject to the same risk evaluation, measurement and control procedures as the investment firm; (d) the counterparty is established in the same Member State as the investment firm; (e) there is no current or foreseen material practical or legal impediment to the prompt transfer of own funds or repayment of liabilities from the counterparty to the investment firm.

4. By way of derogation from this Section, an investment firm may, subject to the approval of the competent authority, calculate the exposure value of derivative contracts listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and for the transactions referred to in points (b) to (f) of paragraph 1 of this Article by applying one of the methods set out in Section 3, 4 or 5, Chapter 6, Title II, Part Three of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and calculate the related own funds requirements by multiplying the exposure value by the risk factor defined per counterparty type as set out in Table 2 in Article 26 of this Regulation.

Investment firms included in the supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Chapter 2 of Title II of Part One of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 may calculate the related own funds requirement by multiplying the risk weighted exposure amounts, calculated in accordance with Section 1 of Chapter 2 of Title II of Part Three of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, by 8 %.

5. When applying the derogation in paragraph 4 of this Article, investment firms shall also apply a credit valuation adjustment (CVA) factor by multiplying the own funds requirement, calculated in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article, by the CVA calculated in accordance with Article 32.

Rather than applying the CVA factor multiplier, investment firms included in the supervision on a consolidated basis in accordance with Chapter 2 of Title II of Part One of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 may calculate own funds requirements for credit valuation adjustment risk in accordance with Title VI of Part Three of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

Article 26

Calculating K‐TCD

For the purpose of calculating K‐TCD, the own funds requirement shall be determined by the following formula:

Own funds requirement = α • EV • RF • CVA

where:

α = 1,2;

EV = the exposure value calculated in accordance with Article 27;

RF = the risk factor defined per counterparty type as set out in Table 2; and

CVA = the credit valuation adjustment calculated in accordance with Article 32.







Table 2 Counterparty type Risk factor Central governments, central banks and public sector entities 1,6 % Credit institutions and investment firms 1,6 % Other counterparties 8 %

Article 27

Calculation of exposure value

The calculation of the exposure value shall be determined in accordance with the following formula:

Exposure value = Max(0; RC + PFE – C)

where:

RC = replacement cost as determined in Article 28;

PFE = potential future exposure as determined in Article 29; and

C = collateral as determined in Article 30.

The replacement cost (RC) and collateral (C) shall apply to all transactions referred to in Article 25.

The potential future exposure (PFE) applies only to derivative contracts.

An investment firm may calculate a single exposure value at netting level for all the transactions covered by a contractual netting agreement, subject to the conditions laid down in Article 31. Where any of those conditions is not met, the investment firm shall treat each transaction as if it was its own netting set.

Article 28

Replacement cost (RC)

The replacement cost referred to in Article 27 shall be determined as follows:

(a) for derivative contracts, RC is determined as the CMV;

(b) for long settlement transactions, RC is determined as the settlement amount of cash to be paid or to be received by the investment firm upon settlement; a receivable is to be treated as a positive amount and a payable is to be treated as a negative amount;

(c) for repurchase transactions and securities or commodities lending or borrowing transactions, RC is determined as the amount of cash lent or borrowed; cash lent by the investment firm is to be treated as a positive amount and cash borrowed by the investment firm is to be treated as a negative amount;

(d) for securities financing transactions, where both legs of the transaction are securities, RC is determined by the CMV of the security lent by the investment firm; the CMV shall be increased using the corresponding volatility adjustment in Table 4 of Article 30;

(e) for margin lending transactions and credits and loans referred to in point (g) of Article 25(1), RC is determined by the book value of the asset in accordance with the applicable accounting framework.

Article 29

Potential future exposure

1. The potential future exposure (PFE) referred to in Article 27 shall be calculated for each derivative as the product of: (a) the effective notional (EN) amount of the transaction set in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 6 of this Article; and (b) the supervisory factor (SF) set in accordance with paragraph 7 of this Article.

2. The effective notional (EN) amount shall be the product of the notional amount calculated in accordance with paragraph 3, its duration calculated in accordance with paragraph 4, and its supervisory delta calculated in accordance with paragraph 6.

3. The notional amount, unless clearly stated and fixed until maturity, shall be determined as follows: (a) for foreign exchange derivative contracts, the notional amount is defined as the notional amount of the foreign currency leg of the contract, converted to the domestic currency; if both legs of a foreign exchange derivative are denominated in currencies other than the domestic currency, the notional amount of each leg is converted to the domestic currency and the leg with the larger domestic currency value is the notional amount; (b) for equity and commodity derivatives contracts and emission allowances and derivatives thereof, the notional amount is defined as the product of the market price of one unit of the instrument and the number of units referenced by the trade; (c) for transactions with multiple payoffs that are state contingent including digital options or target redemption forwards, an investment firm shall calculate the notional amount for each state and use the largest resulting calculation; (d) where the notional is a formula of market values, the investment firm shall enter the CMVs to determine the trade notional amount; (e) for variable notional swaps such as amortising and accreting swaps, investment firms shall use the average notional over the remaining life of the swap as the trade notional amount; (f) leveraged swaps shall be converted to the notional amount of the equivalent unleveraged swap so that where all rates in a swap are multiplied by a factor, the stated notional amount is multiplied by the factor on the interest rates to determine the notional amount; (g) for a derivative contract with multiple exchanges of principal, the notional amount shall be multiplied by the number of exchanges of principal in the derivative contract to determine the notional amount.

4. The notional amount of interest rate contracts and credit derivative contracts for the time to maturity (in years) of those contracts shall be adjusted according to the duration set out in the following formula:

Duration = (1 – exp(–0,05 • time to maturity)) / 0,05

For derivative contracts other than interest rate contracts and credit derivative contracts the duration shall be 1.

5. The maturity of a contract shall be the latest date on which the contract may still be executed.

If the derivative references the value of another interest rate or credit instrument, the time period shall be determined on the basis of the underlying instrument.

For options, the maturity shall be the latest contractual exercise date as specified by the contract.

For a derivative contract that is structured such that on specified dates any outstanding exposure is settled and the terms are reset so that the fair value of the contract is zero, the remaining maturity shall equal the time until the next reset date.

6. The supervisory delta of options and swaptions may be calculated by the investment firm itself, using an appropriate model subject to the approval of competent authorities. The model shall estimate the rate of change of the value of the option with respect to small changes in the market value of the underlying. For transactions other than options and swaptions or where no model has been approved by the competent authorities, the delta shall be 1.

7. The supervisory factor (SF) for each asset class shall be set in accordance with the following table:



Table 3 Asset class Supervisory factor Interest rate 0,5 % Foreign exchange 4 % Credit 1 % Equity single name 32 % Equity index 20 % Commodity and emission allowance 18 % Other 32 %

8. The potential future exposure of a netting set is the sum of the potential future exposure of all transactions included in the netting set, multiplied by: (a) 0,42, for netting sets of transactions with financial and non‐financial counterparties for which collateral is exchanged bilaterally with the counterparty, if required, in accordance with the conditions laid down in Article 11 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012; (b) 1, for other netting sets.

Article 30

Collateral

1. All collateral for both bilateral and cleared transactions referred to in Article 25 shall be subject to volatility adjustments in accordance with the following table:



Table 4 Asset class Volatility adjustment repurchase transactions Volatility adjustment other transactions Debt securities issued by central governments or central banks ≤ 1 year 0,707 % 1 % > 1 year ≤ 5 years 2,121 % 3 % > 5 years 4,243 % 6 % Debt securities issued by other entities ≤ 1 year 1,414 % 2 % > 1 year ≤ 5 years 4,243 % 6 % > 5 years 8,485 % 12 % Securitisation positions ≤ 1 year 2,828 % 4 % > 1 year ≤ 5 years 8,485 % 12 % > 5 years 16,970 % 24 % Listed equities and convertibles 14,143 % 20 % Other securities and commodities 17,678 % 25 % Gold 10,607 % 15 % Cash 0 % 0 %

For the purposes of Table 4, securitisation positions shall not include re‐securitisation positions.

Competent authorities may change the volatility adjustment for certain types of commodities for which there are different levels of volatility in prices. They shall notify EBA of such decisions together with the reasons for the changes.

2. The value of collateral shall be determined as follows: (a) for the purposes of points (a), (e) and (g) of Article 25(1), by the amount of collateral received by the investment firm from its counterparty decreased in accordance with Table 4; (b) for the transactions referred to in points (b), (c), (d) and (f) of Article 25(1), by the sum of the CMV of the security leg and the net amount of collateral posted or received by the investment firm.

For securities financing transactions, where both legs of the transaction are securities, collateral is determined by the CMV of the security borrowed by the investment firm.

Where the investment firm is purchasing or has lent the security, the CMV of the security shall be treated as a negative amount and shall be decreased to a larger negative amount, using the volatility adjustment in Table 4. Where the investment firm is selling or has borrowed the security, the CMV of the security shall be treated as a positive amount and be decreased using the volatility adjustment in Table 4.

Where different types of transactions are covered by a contractual netting agreement, subject to the conditions laid down in Article 31, the applicable volatility adjustments for ‘other transactions’ of Table 4 shall be applied to the respective amounts calculated under points (a) and (b) of the first subparagraph on an issuer basis within each asset class.

3. Where there is a currency mismatch between the transaction and the collateral received or posted, an additional currency mismatch volatility adjustment of 8 % shall apply.

Article 31

Netting

For the purposes of this Section, an investment firm may, first, treat perfectly matching contracts included in a netting agreement as if they were a single contract with a notional principal equivalent to the net receipts, second, net other transactions subject to novation under which all obligations between the investment firm and its counterparty are automatically amalgamated in such a way that the novation legally substitutes one single net amount for the previous gross obligations, and third, net other transactions where the investment firm ensures that the following conditions have been met:

(a) a netting contract with the counterparty or other agreement which creates a single legal obligation covers all included transactions, such that the investment firm would have either a claim to receive or obligation to pay only the net sum of the positive and negative mark‐to‐market values of included individual transactions in the event a counterparty fails to perform due to any of the following: (i) default; (ii) bankruptcy; (iii) liquidation; or (iv) similar circumstances;

(b) the netting contract does not contain any clause which, in the event of default of a counterparty, permits a non‐defaulting counterparty to make limited payments only, or no payments at all, to the estate of the defaulting party, even if the defaulting party is a net creditor;

(c) the investment firm has obtained an independent, written and reasoned legal opinion that, in the event of a legal challenge of the netting agreement, the investment firm’s claims and obligations would be equivalent to those referred to in point (a) under the following legal regime: (i) the law of the jurisdiction in which the counterparty is incorporated; (ii) if a foreign branch of a counterparty is involved, the law of jurisdiction in which the branch is located; (iii) the law that governs the individual transactions included in the netting agreement; or (iv) the law that governs any contract or agreement necessary to effect the netting.

Article 32

Credit valuation adjustment

For the purposes of this Section, CVA means an adjustment to the mid‐market valuation of the portfolio of transactions with a counterparty which reflects the CMV of the credit risk of the counterparty to the investment firm, but does not reflect the CMV of the credit risk of the investment firm to the counterparty.

CVA shall be 1,5 for all transactions other than the following transactions, for which CVA shall be 1:

(a) transactions with non‐financial counterparties as defined in point (9) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, or with non‐financial counterparties established in a third country, where those transactions do not exceed the clearing threshold as specified in Article 10(3) and (4) of that Regulation;

(b) intragroup transactions as provided for in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012;

(c) long settlement transactions;

(d) SFTs, including margin lending transactions, unless the competent authority determines that the investment firm’s CVA risk exposures arising from those transactions are material; and

(e) credits and loans referred to in point (g) of Article 25(1).







Section 2

Daily trading flow

Article 33

Measuring DTF for the purpose of calculating K‐DTF

1. For the purpose of calculating K‐DTF, DTF shall be the rolling average of the value of the total daily trading flow, measured throughout each business day over the previous nine months, excluding the three most recent months.

DTF shall be the arithmetic mean of the daily values from the remaining six months.

K‐DTF shall be calculated on the first business day of each month.

2. DTF shall be measured as the sum of the absolute value of buys and the absolute value of sells for both cash trades and derivatives in accordance with the following: (a) for cash trades, the value is the amount paid or received on each trade; (b) for derivatives, the value of the trade is the notional amount of the contract.

The notional amount of interest rate derivatives shall be adjusted for the time to maturity (in years) of those contracts. The notional amount shall be multiplied by the duration set out in the following formula:

Duration = time to maturity(in years) / 10

3. DTF shall exclude transactions executed by an investment firm for the purpose of providing portfolio management services on behalf of investment funds.

DTF shall include transactions executed by an investment firm in its own name either for itself or on behalf of a client.

4. Where an investment firm has had a daily trading flow for less than nine months, it shall use historical data for DTF for the period specified under paragraph 1 as soon as such data becomes available to calculate K‐DTF. The competent authority may replace missing historical data points by regulatory determinations based on the business projections of the investment firm submitted in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2014/65/EU.







CHAPTER 5

Environmental and social objectives

Article 34

Prudential treatment of assets exposed to activities associated with environmental or social objectives

1. EBA, after consulting the European Systemic Risk Board, shall assess, on the basis of available data and the findings of the Commission’s High‐Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance, whether dedicated prudential treatment of assets exposed to activities associated substantially with environmental or social objectives, in the form of adjusted K‐factors or adjusted K‐factor coefficients, would be justified from a prudential perspective. In particular, EBA shall assess the following: (a) methodological options for assessing the exposures of asset classes to activities substantially associated with environmental or social objectives; (b) specific risk profiles of assets exposed to activities associated substantially with environmental or social objectives; (c) risks related to the depreciation of assets due to regulatory changes such as climate change mitigation; (d) potential effects of dedicated prudential treatment of assets exposed to activities associated substantially with environmental or social objectives on financial stability.

2. EBA shall submit a report on its findings to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Commission by 26 December 2021.

3. On the basis of the report referred to in paragraph 2, the Commission shall, if appropriate, submit a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and the Council.







PART FOUR

CONCENTRATION RISK

Article 35

Monitoring obligation

1. Investment firms shall monitor and control their concentration risk in accordance with this Part by means of sound administrative and accounting procedures and robust internal control mechanisms.

2. For the purposes of this Part, the terms ‘credit institution’ and ‘investment firm’ include private or public undertakings, including the branches of such undertakings, provided that those undertakings, if they were established in the Union, would be credit institutions or investment firms as defined in this Regulation, and provided that those undertakings have been authorised in a third country that applies prudential supervisory and regulatory requirements at least equivalent to those applied in the Union.

Article 36

Calculation of the exposure value

1. Investment firms that do not meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) shall calculate the exposure value with regard to a client or group of connected clients for the purposes of this Part by adding together the following items: (a) the positive excess of the investment firm’s long positions over its short positions in all the trading book financial instruments issued by the client in question, the net position for each instrument calculated in accordance with the provisions referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 22; (b) the exposure value of contracts and transactions referred to in Article 25(1) with the client in question, calculated in the manner laid down in Article 27.

For the purposes of point (a) of the first subparagraph, an investment firm that, for the purposes of the RtM K‐factor requirement, calculates own funds requirements for the trading book positions in accordance with the approach specified in Article 23 shall calculate the net position for the purposes of the concentration risk of those positions in accordance with the provisions referred to in point (a) of Article 22.

For the purposes of point (b) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, an investment firm that, for the purposes of K‐TCD, calculates own funds requirements by applying the methods referred to in Article 25(4) of this Regulation shall calculate the exposure value of the contracts and transactions referred to in Article 25(1) of this Regulation by applying the methods set out in Section 3, 4 or 5 of Chapter 6 of Title II of Part Three of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

2. The exposure value with regard to a group of connected clients shall be calculated by adding together the exposures to the individual clients within the group, which shall be treated as a single exposure.

3. In calculating the exposure value with regard to a client or a group of connected clients, an investment firm shall take all reasonable steps to identify underlying assets in relevant transactions and the counterparty of the underlying exposures.

Article 37

Limits with regard to concentration risk and exposure value excess

1. An investment firm’s limit with regard to the concentration risk of an exposure value with regard to an individual client or group of connected clients shall be 25 % of its own funds.

Where that individual client is a credit institution or an investment firm, or where a group of connected clients includes one or more credit institutions or investment firms, the limit with regard to concentration risk shall be the higher of 25 % of the investment firm’s own funds or EUR 150 million provided that for the sum of exposure values with regard to all connected clients that are not credit institutions or investment firms, the limit with regard to concentration risk remains at 25 % of the investment firms’ own funds.

Where the amount of EUR 150 million is higher than 25 % of the investment firm’s own funds, the limit with regard to concentration risk shall not exceed 100 % of the investment firm’s own funds.

2. Where the limits referred to in paragraph 1 are exceeded, an investment firm shall meet the obligation to notify set out in Article 38 and meet an own funds requirement on the exposure value excess in accordance with Article 39.

Investment firms shall calculate an exposure value excess with regard to an individual client or group of connected clients in accordance with the following formula:

exposure value excess = EV – L

where:

EV = exposure value calculated in the manner laid down in Article 36; and

L = limit with regard to concentration risk as determined in paragraph 1 of this Article.

3. The exposure value with regard to an individual client or group of connected clients shall not exceed: (a) 500 % of the investment firm’s own funds, where 10 days or less have elapsed since the excess occurred; (b) in aggregate, 600 % of the investment firm’s own funds, for any excesses that have persisted for more than 10 days.

Article 38

Obligation to notify

1. Where the limits referred to in Article 37 are exceeded, an investment firm shall notify the competent authorities of the amount of the excess, the name of the individual client concerned and, where applicable, the name of the group of connected clients concerned, without delay.

2. Competent authorities may grant the investment firm a limited period to comply with the limit referred to in Article 37.

Article 39

Calculating K‐CON

1. The K‐CON own funds requirement shall be the aggregate amount of the own funds requirement calculated for each client or group of connected clients as the own funds requirement of the appropriate line in Column 1 in Table 6 that accounts for a part of the total individual excess, multiplied by: (a) 200 %, where the excess has not persisted for more than 10 days; (b) the corresponding factor in Column 2 of Table 6, after the period of 10 days calculated from the date on which the excess has occurred, by allocating each proportion of the excess to the appropriate line in Column 1 of Table 6.

2. The own funds requirement of the excess referred to in paragraph 1 shall be calculated in accordance with the following formula:

where:

OFRE = own funds requirement for the excess;

OFR = own funds requirement of exposures to an individual client or groups of connected clients, calculated by adding together the own funds requirements of the exposures to the individual clients within the group, which shall be treated as a single exposure;

EV = exposure value calculated in the manner laid down in Article 36;

EVE = exposure value excess calculated in the manner laid down in Article 37(2).

For the purpose of calculating K‐CON, the own funds requirements of exposures arising from the positive excess of an investment firm’s long positions over its short positions in all the trading book financial instruments issued by the client in question, the net position of each instrument calculated in accordance with the provisions referred to in points (a), (b) and (c) of Article 22 shall only include specific‐risk requirements.

An investment firm that, for the purposes of the RtM K‐factor requirement, calculates own funds requirements for trading book positions in accordance with the approach specified in Article 23 shall calculate the own funds requirement of the exposure for the purposes of the concentration risk of those positions in accordance with the provisions referred to in point (a) of Article 22.







Table 6 Column 1: Exposure value excess as a percentage of own funds Column 2: Factors Up to 40 % 200 % From 40 % to 60 % 300 % From 60 % to 80 % 400 % From 80 % to 100 % 500 % From 100 % to 250 % 600 % Over 250 % 900 %

Article 40

Procedures to prevent investment firms from avoiding the K‐CON own funds requirement

1. Investment firms shall not temporarily transfer exposures exceeding the limit laid down in Article 37(1) to another company, whether within the same group or not, or enter into artificial transactions to close out those exposures during the 10‐day period referred to in Article 39 and create new exposures.

2. Investment firms shall maintain systems which ensure that any transfer as referred to in paragraph 1 is immediately reported to the competent authorities.

Article 41

Exclusions

1. The following exposures shall be excluded from the requirements set out in Article 37: (a) exposures which are entirely deducted from an investment firm’s own funds; (b) exposures incurred in the ordinary course of the settlement of payment services, foreign currency transactions, securities transactions and the provision of money transmission; (c) exposures constituting claims against: (i) central governments, central banks, public sector entities, international organisations or multilateral development banks and exposures guaranteed by or attributable to such persons, where those exposures receive a 0 % risk weight under Articles 114 to 118 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013; (ii) the regional governments and local authorities of countries that are members of the European Economic Area; (iii) central counterparties and default fund contributions to central counterparties.

2. Competent authorities may fully or partially exempt the following exposures from the application of Article 37: (a) covered bonds; (b) exposures incurred by an investment firm to its parent undertaking, to other subsidiaries of that parent undertaking or to its own subsidiaries, insofar as those undertakings are supervised on a consolidated basis in accordance with Article 7 of this Regulation or with Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, are supervised for compliance with the group capital test in accordance with Article 8 of this Regulation, or are supervised in accordance with equivalent standards in force in a third country, and provided that the following conditions are met: (i) there is no current or foreseen material practical or legal impediment to the prompt transfer of capital or repayment of liabilities by the parent undertaking; and (ii) the risk evaluation, measurement and control procedures of the parent undertaking include the financial sector entity.

Article 42

Exemption for commodity and emission allowance dealers

1. The provisions of this Part shall not apply to commodity and emission allowance dealers where all the following conditions are met: (a) the other counterparty is a non‐financial counterparty; (b) both counterparties are subject to appropriate centralised risk evaluation, measurement and control procedures; (c) the transaction can be assessed as reducing risks directly relating to the commercial activity or treasury financing activity of the non‐financial counterparty or of that group.

2. Investment firms shall notify the competent authority before using the exemption referred to in paragraph 1.







PART FIVE

LIQUIDITY

Article 43

Liquidity requirement

1. Investment firms shall hold an amount of liquid assets equivalent to at least one third of the fixed overhead requirement calculated in accordance with Article 13(1).

By way of derogation from the first subparagraph of this paragraph, competent authorities may exempt investment firms that meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) from the application of the first subparagraph of this paragraph and shall duly inform EBA thereof.

For the purposes of the first subparagraph, liquid assets shall be any of the following, without limitation to their composition:

(a) the assets referred to in Articles 10 to 13 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61, subject to the same conditions regarding eligibility criteria and the same applicable haircuts as those laid down in those Articles;

(b) the assets referred to in Article 15 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61, up to an absolute amount of EUR 50 million or the equivalent amount in domestic currency, subject to the same conditions regarding eligibility criteria, with the exception of the EUR 500 million threshold amount referred to in Article 15(1) of that Regulation, and the same applicable haircuts as those laid down in in that Article;

(c) financial instruments not covered by points (a) and (b) of this subparagraph, traded on a trading venue for which there is a liquid market as defined in point (17) of Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014 and in Articles 1 to 5 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/567 ( 10 ), subject to a haircut of 55 %;

(d) unencumbered short‐term deposits at a credit institution.

2. Cash, short term deposits and financial instruments belonging to clients, even where held in the own name of the investment firm, shall not be treated as liquid assets for the purposes of paragraph 1.

3. For the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Article, investment firms that meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) of this Regulation and investment firms that do not meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) of this Regulation but which do not carry out any of the activities referred to in points (3) and (6) of Section A of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU may also include receivables from trade debtors as well as fees or commissions receivable within 30 days in their liquid assets, where those receivables comply with the following conditions: (a) they account for up to a maximum of one third of the minimum liquidity requirements as referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article; (b) they are not to be counted towards any additional liquidity requirements required by the competent authority for firm‐specific risks in accordance with point (k) of Article 39(2) of Directive (EU) 2019/2034; (c) they are subject to a haircut of 50 %.

4. For the purposes of the second subparagraph of paragraph 1, EBA, in consultation with ESMA, shall issue guidelines specifying further the criteria which the competent authorities may take into account when exempting investment firms that meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) from the liquidity requirement.

Article 44

Temporary reduction of the liquidity requirement

1. Investment firms may, in exceptional circumstances, and after approval by the competent authority, reduce the amount of liquid assets held.

2. Compliance with the liquidity requirement set out in Article 43(1) shall be restored within 30 days of the original reduction.

Article 45

Client guarantees

Investment firms shall increase their liquid assets by 1,6 % of the total amount of guarantees provided to clients.







PART SIX

DISCLOSURE BY INVESTMENT FIRMS

Article 46

Scope

1. Investment firms that do not meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) shall publicly disclose the information specified in this Part on the same date as they publish their annual financial statements.

2. Investment firms that meet the conditions for qualifying as small and non‐interconnected investment firms set out in Article 12(1) which issue Additional Tier 1 instruments shall publicly disclose the information set out in Articles 47, 49 and 50 on the same date as they publish their annual financial statements.

3. Wher