On 26 June 2026, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced a comprehensive review of its publications on banking supervision. The review is intended to improve transparency, consistency and ease of use for banks and other stakeholders, including the wider public.

The review will cover approximately 130 guides, reports, letters and methodologies relating to ECB banking supervision. So far, the ECB has identified around 40 documents as outdated, superseded or no longer relevant, which have been discontinued. The texts will remain accessible for transparency and archival purposes but will be labelled as discontinued.

Initial review

In addition, the ECB has (or will shortly) revise a limited number of publications in order to clarify specific aspects or reflect recent regulatory developments. For example, supervisory expectations for the management buffer will be clarified in the ECB’s guide to the internal capital adequacy assessment process. All content related to supervisory expectations on the credit conversion factor has been removed from the ECB guide to internal models on the basis that the European Banking Authority (EBA) is in the process of preparing guidelines on this topic. References to credit valuation adjustment have been removed in both the ECB guide on assessment methodology and the ECB guide on materiality assessment so to reflect new rules under the Capital Requirements Regulation III.

In-depth review

The ECB will also be conducting a more in-depth review of certain documents in order to take into account forthcoming legislative developments and stakeholder feedback. Should substantial changes be required the ECB will issue a public consultation. Such publications include:

  • The draft ECB guide on governance and risk culture. The ECB intends to replace this guide with a report focused exclusively on good practices. This publication is planned for Q1 2027, after the revised EBA guidelines on internal governance have been finalised, in order to ensure full alignment.
  • The ECB guide to licence applications. The ECB intends to provide further clarification of procedural matters and make express reference to the EBA’s guidelines on a common assessment methodology for granting authorisation as a credit institution. This will align with current ECB banking supervision practice. The updated guide is expected in Q3 2026.
  • The ECB guide on effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting. This is being revised to provide further clarification of key expectations, mainly related to the scope of application of a bank’s data governance framework and to the implementation of an integrated data architecture. The revised guide is expected to be published in Q4 2026.
  • The ECB guide to on-site inspections and internal model investigations. Publication of the revised text is expected by end-2026.
  • The ECB guide on leveraged transactions is currently under review, with the assessment to be finalised by end-2026.