Directive (EU) 2019/2162 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on the issue of covered bonds and covered bond public supervision and amending Directives 2009/65/EC and 2014/59/EU (Text with EEA relevance)

• Published date: 18 December 2019
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 328, 18 December 2019

18.12.2019 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 328/29

---

DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/2162 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 27 November 2019

on the issue of covered bonds and covered bond public supervision and amending Directives 2009/65/EC and 2014/59/EU

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),

Whereas:

(1) Article 52(4) of Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) provides for very general requirements relating to the structural elements of covered bonds. Those requirements are limited to the need for covered bonds to be issued by a credit institution which has its registered office in a Member State, and to be subject to special public supervision and to a dual recourse mechanism. National covered bond frameworks address those issues while regulating them in much greater detail. Those national frameworks also contain other structural provisions, in particular rules regarding the composition of the cover pool, eligibility criteria for assets, the possibility of pooling assets, transparency and reporting obligations, and rules on liquidity risk mitigation. Member State approaches to regulation also differ in substance. In several Member States, there is no dedicated national framework for covered bonds. As a consequence, the key structural elements with which covered bonds issued in the Union are to comply are not yet set out in Union law.

(2) Article 129 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) adds further conditions to those referred to in Article 52(4) of Directive 2009/65/EC for obtaining preferential treatment as regards capital requirements which allow credit institutions investing in covered bonds to hold less capital than when investing in other assets. While those additional requirements increase the level of harmonisation of covered bonds within the Union, they serve the specific purpose of establishing the conditions to be satisfied in order for covered bond investors to receive such preferential treatment, and are not applicable outside the framework of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

(3) Other Union legal acts, such as Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) 2015/35 (5) and (EU) 2015/61 (6) and Directive 2014/59/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), also refer to the definition set out in Directive 2009/65/EC as a reference for identifying the covered bonds that benefit from the preferential treatment for covered bond investors under those acts. However, the wording of those acts differs according to their purpose and subject matter, and thus the term ‘covered bond’ is not used consistently.

(4) Overall, the treatment of covered bonds can be considered to be harmonised regarding the conditions for investing in covered bonds. There is, however, a lack of harmonisation across the Union regarding the conditions for the issue of covered bonds and that has several consequences. First, preferential treatment is granted equally to instruments which differ in nature as well as in their level of risk and investor protection. Second, differences between national frameworks or the absence of such a framework and the lack of a commonly agreed definition of the term ‘covered bond’ could create obstacles to the development of a truly integrated single market for covered bonds. Third, the differences in safeguards provided by national rules could create risks to financial stability because covered bonds with different levels of investor protection can be purchased across the Union and benefit from preferential treatment under Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 and other Union legal acts.

(5) Harmonising certain aspects of national frameworks based on certain best practices should therefore ensure the smooth and continuous development of well-functioning covered bond markets in the Union and limit potential risks and vulnerabilities to financial stability. Such principle-based harmonisation should establish a common baseline for the issue of all covered bonds in the Union. Harmonisation requires all Member States to establish covered bond frameworks, which should also facilitate the development of covered bond markets in those Member States where there is none. Such a market would provide a stable funding source for credit institutions, which would, on that basis, be better placed to provide affordable mortgages for consumers and businesses and would make alternative safe investments available to investors.

(6) In its recommendation of 20 December 2012 on funding of credit institutions (8), the European Systemic Risk Board (‘ESRB’) invited national competent authorities and the European Supervisory Authority (European Banking Authority) (‘EBA’), established by Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9), to identify best practices regarding covered bonds and to encourage the harmonisation of national frameworks. It also recommended that EBA coordinate actions taken by national competent authorities, particularly in relation to the quality and segregation of cover pools, bankruptcy remoteness of covered bonds, the asset and liability risks affecting cover pools and disclosure of the composition of cover pools. The recommendation further called on EBA to monitor the functioning of the covered bond market by reference to best practices identified by EBA for a period of two years, in order to assess the need for legislative action and to report to the ESRB and to the Commission accordingly.

(7) In December 2013, the Commission requested advice from EBA in accordance with Article 503(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.

(8) In the report accompanying its opinion of 1 July 2014, responding to both the ESRB recommendation of 20 December 2012 and the Commission’s request for advice of December 2013, EBA recommended greater convergence of national legal, regulatory and supervisory covered bond frameworks, so as to further support a single preferential risk weight treatment of covered bonds in the Union.

(9) As envisaged by the ESRB, EBA monitored the functioning of the covered bond market by reference to the best practices set out in that recommendation for two years. On the basis of that monitoring, EBA delivered a second opinion and report on covered bonds to the ESRB, to the Council and to the Commission on 20 December 2016 (10). That report concluded that further harmonisation is necessary to ensure more consistency in terms of definitions and regulatory treatment of covered bonds in the Union. The report further concluded that harmonisation should build on existing well-functioning markets in some Member States.

(10) Covered bonds are traditionally issued by credit institutions. The inherent purpose of covered bonds is to provide funding for loans, and one of the core activities of credit institutions is to grant loans on a large scale. Accordingly, in order for covered bonds to benefit from preferential treatment under Union law, they are required to be issued by credit institutions.

(11) Reserving the issue of covered bonds to credit institutions ensures that the issuer has the necessary knowledge to manage the credit risk relating to the loans in the cover pool. It further ensures that the issuer is subject to capital requirements that protect investors under the dual recourse mechanism, which grants the investor, as well as the counterparty of a derivative contract, a claim against both the covered bond issuer and the cover assets. Reserving the issue of covered bonds to credit institutions therefore ensures that covered bonds remain a safe and efficient funding tool, thereby contributing to investor protection and financial stability, which are important public policy objectives in the general interest. That is also in line with the approach of well-functioning national markets in which only credit institutions are permitted to issue covered bonds.

(12) It is therefore appropriate that only credit institutions as defined in point (1) of Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 be permitted to issue covered bonds under Union law. Specialised mortgage credit institutions are characterised by the fact that they do not take deposits, but rather take other repayable funds from the public, and as such they fall within the definition of ‘credit institution’ as laid down in Regulation (EU) No 575/2013. Without prejudice to ancillary activities permitted under applicable national law, specialised mortgage credit institutions are institutions that carry out only mortgage and public sector lending, including funding loans purchased from other credit institutions. The main purpose of this Directive is to regulate the conditions under which credit institutions can issue covered bonds as a financing tool, by laying down the product requirements and establishing specific product supervision to which credit institutions are subject, in order to ensure a high level of investor protection.

(13) The existence of a dual recourse mechanism is an essential concept and element of many existing national covered bond frameworks. It is also a core feature of covered bonds as referred to in Article 52(4) of Directive 2009/65/EC. It is therefore necessary to specify that concept so as to ensure that investors and counterparties

...