On 4 May 2021, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a Discussion Paper intended to facilitate the review of the standardised non-performing loan (NPL) data templates.

The EBA developed standardised NPL data templates in 2017 to help facilitate financial due diligence and the valuation of NPL transactions. These templates aimed to reduce information asymmetries and barriers to entry in EU NPL markets, and provide a benchmark for a common data standard for transactions, enabling NPLs to be compared, also across jurisdictions.  The purpose of the Discussion Paper is to open a discussion with market participants on a number of aspects of the NPL templates such as their design, their criticality and availability and the data fields to be included.

The deadline for comments on the Discussion Paper is 31 August 2021.

Following feedback on the Discussion Paper, the EBA will prepare a revised version of the data templates and publish them by December 2021. Furthermore, the EBA will await the finalisation of the draft Directive on credit servicers, credit purchasers and the recovery of collateral. Should the final version of that Directive mandates the EBA to develop Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) specifying data templates for the provision of information from NPL sellers to purchasers, the EBA will issue a Consultation Paper on the draft ITS, and the revised templates developed following the Discussion Paper would form the basis of the Consultation Paper on the draft ITS.