CP174 - Consultation on updates to the Implementation Notice for Competent Authority discretions in the Capital Requirements Regulation and Capital Requirements Directive

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Overview

Description

The Central Bank is proposing to update its May 2025 version of the Implementation Notice regarding Options and Discretions (O&Ds) in the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) and the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD), in view of revisions made to the ECB’s O&D framework, notably:

• Recommendation ECB/2025/26 amending Recommendation ECB/2017/10 on common specifications for the exercise of some options and discretions available in Union law by national competent authorities in relation to less significant institutions (“LSI Recommendation”); and
• Guideline (EU) 2025/25 amending Guideline (EU) 2017/697 of the European Central Bank on the exercise of options and discretions available in Union law by national competent authorities in relation to less significant institutions (“LSI Guideline”).

Rationale for the publication of this Implementation Notice

These revisions are linked, primarily, to recent legislative changes in the form of CRR III and CRD VI. At a high level, the Central Bank is proposing to update the May 2025 version of the Implementation Notice as follows:

• Revisions to the non-binding LSI Recommendation as outlined in the first point above would be applied in full to Less Significant Institutions (LSIs); and
• The existing approach in the Implementation Notice of exercising O&Ds in a harmonised manner (unless otherwise specified) with respect to credit institutions and investment firms would be maintained.
• The document has been streamlined including by removing annexes. Section 2 dealing with transitional arrangements has been removed and new sections have been added relating to the exercise of certain existing or new O&Ds including those relevant to the issuance of covered bonds and the exercise of new CRDVI O&Ds applicable to third country branches.
• Following the repeal of the Central Bank’s 2016 Central Bank Policy Statement on Authorisation of Third Country Branches, the Implementation Notice now contains the Central Bank’s existing policy position on retail deposit taking by Third Country Branches.
  

Consultation Process

The Central Bank is committed to clear, open and transparent engagement with stakeholders in fulfilling its financial regulatory and supervisory objectives, particularly when introducing new codes, regulations, standards or guidelines. The Central Bank is inviting stakeholders to provide comments on the proposed updates to the Implementation Notice. Comments should be sent in writing, and preferably by e-mail, no later than 1 February 2027 to implementationnotice@centralbank.ie.

Comments sent in hard copy can be sent to:

Banking and Investment Firms Policy Unit,
Banking, Insurance & Payments Policy Division,
Central Bank of Ireland,
New Wapping Street,
North Wall Quay,
Dublin 1.

The Central Bank will send an email acknowledgement to all responses received. If you do not receive this acknowledgement, please contact us on 01-2246000. It is the policy of the Central Bank to publish all responses to its consultations and such responses will be made available on our website. Stakeholders should thus not include commercially confidential information in consultation responses and the Central Bank accepts no liability whatsoever for the content of stakeholders’ consultation responses that are subsequently published by the Central Bank. We shall not publish any information which we deem potentially defamatory.

Further Information

If you have any questions, please send them to implementationnotice@centralbank.ie with “Consultation Paper 174” in the subject line.

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Consultation Paper Document

CP174 - Consultation on updates to the Implementation Notice for Competent Authority discretions in the Capital Requirements Regulation and Capital Requirements Directive | pdf 392 KB