On 23 April 2026, the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued an Opinion on the European Commission’s (Commission) proposed amendments to the final draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying operational risk requirements under the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR). It considers that two amendments proposed by the Commission could affect the consistency, transparency and supervisory effectiveness of capital requirements for operational risk:
- The Commission proposes to allow the combined use of the accounting approach (AA) and the prudential boundary approach (PBA) for the calculation of the financial component of the business indicator. The EBA considers that requiring institutions to apply only one approach to the full balance sheet is necessary to preserve the coherence of the framework. The combined use of both approaches is not envisaged in the Basel standard and may increase complexity, create inconsistencies across risk frameworks and facilitate regulatory arbitrage, while benefiting only a limited number of institutions.
- The Commission proposes to limit notification obligations to competent authorities to material changes in the scope of the PBA when used in combination with the AA. The EBA considers that this could weaken supervisory effectiveness by introducing institution-specific materiality judgments making supervisory reviews more complex.