COVID-19 Update: Changes To The EU Securitisation Regulations And The Capital Regulation Reference

As discussed in our previous Clients and Friends Memo¹ (the "First Update"), on 24 July 2020 the European Commission (the "Commission") published proposed amendments to the current securitisation framework set out in Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 (the "Securitisation Regulation")² with the intention of bolstering economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council of the EU has now published the final text in respect of those amendments, as agreed with the EU Parliament and the Commission (the "Final Text")³. The purpose of this Clients and Friends Memo is to highlight certain new provisions of the Final Text of general significance for the securitisation market.

The amendments to the Securitisation Regulation: (i) remove some regulatory obstacles to the securitisation of non-performing exposures ("NPEs"); and (ii) extend the framework for simple, transparent and standardised ("STS") securitisations to balance-sheet synthetic securitisations.