The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published final guidelines on the supervision of significant branches.

The guidelines set out a framework for the identification of ‘significant-plus’ branches through a common assessment carried out by home and host competent authorities of the branches’ relevance to the institution or the financial stability in the host Member State.

The guidelines also outline a coordinated approach to their supervision and the assessment of recovery planning facilitated through the framework of colleges of supervisors.

In particular, the guidelines set out principles that Member State competent authorities should comply with in the performance of risk assessments of the institution having such ‘significant-plus’ branches, such as exchange of supervisory intelligence and information, planning of supervisory activities, on-the-spot checks and inspections, application of supervisory and precautionary measures and allocation of tasks between authorities.

The guidelines do not interfere with the tasks and responsibilities conferred on the consolidating supervisor and the home and host Member State competent authorities by the CRD IV and the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive.

The guidelines will be translated into the official EU languages and published on the EBA website. The deadline for Member State competent authorities to report whether they comply with the guidelines will be two months after the publication of the translations. The guidelines will apply from 1 January 2018.

View EBA publishes final guidance on supervision of significant branches, 1 November 2017