The European Banking Authority (EBA) published its peer review on the prudential assessment of qualifying holdings today.

The EBA’s ad hoc Peer Review Committee’s conclusions included in this Report are based on competent authorities’ self-assessment of how they applied selected areas of the Joint ESAs Guidelines on the prudential assessment of the acquisition of qualifying holdings, notably the notion of acting in concert, significant influence, indirect qualifying holdings, assessment of completeness of the notification and time limits, financial soundness, reputation of the acquirer, and selected aspects relating to the fifth assessment criterion on money laundering /terrorist finance (ML/TF) risk.

The Report also provides indications as to the additional guidance to the competent authorities could be provided, with a view to fostering convergence of practices. These include:

  • review and enhancement of guidance on the fifth assessment criterion relating to ML/TF risk;
  • additional guidance on the assessment of large and complex acquisitions, so as to achieve a more proportionate and efficient assessment;
  • review of the guidance on the application of the proportionality principle;
  • additional guidance on the content of documents and information to be provided with an application, in order to better explain supervisory expectations and speed up the pre-application phase.

To access the report please click here.