CRD VI Explained: What The New EU Bank M&A Rulebook Means For Austria

March 2026 – CRD VI (Directive (EU) 2024/1619) introduces a new harmonised EU regime requiring EU credit institutions and licensed (mixed) financial holding companies to obtain prior approval and to notify supervisors before carrying out material acquisitions, mergers, divisions, or material transfers of assets and liabilities. The existing regime governing acquisitions or disposals of qualifying holdings in a credit institution will continue to apply in parallel, with some amendments.

The new unified regime replaces today’s patchwork of Member State national rules and extends supervisory involvement well beyond the existing qualifying holdings framework. Until now, many Member States (including Austria) required approval only for certain structural transactions such as bank mergers, while others did not regulate these steps at all.