PRESS RELEASE

Embargoed until Tuesday 26 January

Brussels, 25January 2016

European Bank Resolution: Making it work!

CEPS launches new task force report on the implementation of the EU bank resolution framework

From the start of this year onwards, new rules for bank resolution are in place – as spelled out in the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) – across the EU, and a new authority (the Single Resolution Board, or SRB) is fully operational for resolving all banks in the eurozone.

The implementation issues of the new regime are enormous. Banks need to develop recovery plans, and authorities need to create resolution plans as well as set the minimum required amount of own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) for each bank. But given the diversity in bank structures and instruments at EU and global level, this will be a formidable challenge, above all with respect to internationally active banks.

The CEPS Task Force report sets out how the authorities and banks can meet this challenge. Its key recommendations are:

  1. Create constructive certainty. Each significant bank’s crisis management group should develop and make known the ‘preferred path’ they intend to employ, if it becomes necessary to place the bank into resolution.
  2. Respect the market. For bail-in to work, the investor obligations most likely to be subject to bail-in must function ‘back to front’. Investors need to know, not only that they will be subject to loss, but what they might recover or at least the process by which they might recover some of their investment. The closer resolution gets to normal insolvency procedures, the better the ‘back’ end of the instrument will function and the easier it will be to place the obligations with investors at the ‘front’.
  3. Maintain continuity. In addition to requiring banks to take steps to maintain continuity of services, authorities should take steps to assure that a bank-in-resolution retains its authorisation(s) and license(s) and continues to have access to financial market infrastructures.
  4. Look after liquidity. Central banks should lend to solvent banks in viable condition on the basis of sound collateral. Expressed in concrete terms, central banks should refrain from offering to finance banks where shortfalls in capital have driven the bank to the point of non-viability. There should be no forbearance. To facilitate such an outcome, responsibility for emergency liquidity assistance within the eurozone should be transferred to the ECB from national central banks.

Once the bank in resolution has been recapitalised, it should have the same access to central bank facilities as other banks. To facilitate such access to liquidity, banks will need to keep track of their unencumbered assets as well as be able to value and pledge such assets to potential (official and/or private) liquidity providers.

These recommendations are the result of a series of discussions held among a group of senior experts chaired by Thomas Huertas, in the context of the CEPS Task Force on Financial Sector Resolution. This interim report of the Task Force focuses exclusively on the pending issues related to banking sector resolution. Later this year, this report will be followed-up with contributions on the resolution of non-bank financial institutions.

The CEPS Task Force report “European Bank Resolution: Making it Work!”, will be freely downloadable from 26 January at

About CEPS

Founded in Brussels in 1983, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) is widely recognised as the most experienced and authoritative think tank operating in the European Union today. CEPS acts as a leading forum for debate on EU affairs, distinguished by its strong in-house research capacity and complemented by an extensive network of partner institutes throughout the world.

Press contacts: Marco Incerti +32 (0) 2 229 3970 / +32 (0) 485 485 435

Xavier Trota +32 (0) 2 229 3928