CRR: EBA consults on scope of draft guidelines on connected clients

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has launched a consultation on the scope of its draft guidelines on connected clients. The EBA already sought feedback on these draft guidelines in July 2016, but following comments from respondents it has decided to launch a second consultation on proposals to extend the scope of the guidelines.

The draft guidelines provide guidance on two types of interconnection (control relationships and economic dependencies), which lead to the formation of groups of connected clients. In the first consultation the EBA proposed the guidelines applied only in the context of the large exposures regime. However the concept of a 'group of connected clients' is relevant to other areas of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), such as the categorisation of clients in the retail exposure class for the purposes of credit risk, the development and application of rating systems and the application of the SME supporting factor. The concept is also relevant to the EBA technical standards and other EBA guidelines.

This second consultation therefore seeks feedback on extending the scope of the draft guidelines to include all aspects of the CRR, the EBA technical standards and the EBA guidelines where the concept of a group of connected clients is relevant.

Comments are due by 26 June 2017.