The EU Risk Reduction Package: The Countdown For Restructuring The MREL Base Has Just Begun

The pending EU risk reduction package is highly relevant for the whole EU banking sector. It addresses the capital provisioning required by banks to facilitate potential resolution measures by resolution authorities if a bank is failing or likely to fail. The reform package spells out which instruments banks may use to fulfill these capital provisioning requirements and how to compute their amount in different corporate, group or consolidation structures. Further aspects are reporting and disclosure requirements, the competent authorities' powers in case of breaches, as well as consumer protection, requiring banks to ensure that consumers are not offered instruments that will be bailed-in or written-down first in the issuing bank's resolution.