On June 20, 2018, the European Central Bank published a revised version of its manual on the methodology for phase 2 of its Asset Quality Review, which forms part of the Comprehensive Assessment that the ECB and national regulators must make of relevant Eurozone banks under the EU Regulation on the Single Supervisory Mechanism. This revised version replaces the earlier version of the AQR manual published in 2014.
In Frequently Asked Questions published alongside the updated AQR manual, the ECB explains that the AQR manual has been updated to reflect the entry into force of the new accounting rules of International Financial Reporting Standard 9 on January 1, 2018. This has required some changes to the provisions of the AQR manual, in particular to incorporate new approaches to determining impairments and classifying financial instruments. The manual has also been updated to reflect their view that bank business models focused on investment services have become increasingly important for ECB Banking Supervision, in particular in the context of Brexit.
The AQR manual will be further updated if and when changes to the methodology in general, or to the calibration of specific methodological elements, are deemed necessary and material.
The updated AQR manual is available at: https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssm.assetqualityreviewmanual201806.en.pdf and the FAQ are available at: https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/ecb/pub/pdf/ssm.assetqualityreviewmanual201806_QA.en.pdf.
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