The European Banking Authority Has Published Its Final Guidelines On WAM

On 4 May 2020, the European Banking Authority ("EBA") published a final report containing guidelines (EBA/GL/2020/04) (the "Guidelines") on the use of the weighted average maturity approach ("WAM") instead of the final legal maturity approach when calculating contractual payments due under the tranche of a securitisation transaction. This is relevant for institutions using the internal or the external rating-based approach for the calculation of their capital requirements under the EU Capital Requirements Regulation ((EU) 575/2013), as amended by the CRR Amending Regulation ((EU) 2017/2401) ("CRR"). CRR currently provides for tranche maturity as an additional parameter to calculate the capital requirement in respect of securitisation positions. The Guidelines highlight that institutions have the full discretion to choose between the two alternative approaches to determine the maturity of the tranche: (i) the WAM approach of the contractual payments due under the