On 13 June 2018, the European Central Bank (ECB) published a letter to significant institutions which provides information about the processes that should be used when communicating any applications for:
- initial internal model approvals;
- material model changes and extensions;
- reversions to less sophisticated approaches; or
- modifications to the scope of assets for which permanent partial use of the standardised approach is permitted.
The letter also contains links to the set of documents to be used when communicating to the ECB any non-material model changes or extensions (whether ex ante or ex post).
As of 1 July 2018, all significant institutions are invited to use the forms detailed in the letter when submitting model application requests relating to internal models through their regular points of contact. For the communication of non-material model changes, institutions are asked to start using the relevant forms as of 1 July 2018 (see section 3 of the letter).
Institutions are also asked to share this letter with their subsidiaries, particularly if the subsidiaries are responsible for drafting background documents that inform the applications.
