Directive 2006/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

Specific risk

14. The institution shall assign its net positions in the trading book, as calculated in accordance with point 1 to the appropriate categories in Table 1 on the basis of their issuer/obligor, external or internal credit assessment, and residual maturity, and then multiply them by the weightings shown in that table. It shall sum its weighted positions (regardless of whether they are long or short) in order to calculate its capital requirement against specific risk.

For institutions which apply the rules for the risk weighting of exposures under Articles 84 to 89 of Directive 2006/48/EC, to qualify for a credit quality step the obligor of the exposure shall have an internal rating with a PD equivalent to or lower than that associated with the appropriate credit quality step under the rules for the risk weighting of exposures to corporates under Articles 78 to 83 of that Directive.

Instruments issued by a non-qualifying issuer shall receive a specific risk capital charge of 8 % or 12 % according to Table 1. Competent authorities may require institutions to apply a higher specific risk charge to such instruments and/or to disallow offsetting for the purposes of defining the extent of general market risk between such instruments and any other debt instruments.

Securitisation exposures that would be subject to a deduction treatment as set out in Article 66(2) of Directive 2006/48/EC, or risk-weighted at 1,25 % as set out in Part 4 of Annex IX to that Directive, shall be subject to a capital charge that is no less than that set out under those treatments. Unrated liquidity facilities shall be subject to a capital charge that is no less than that set out in Part 4 of Annex IX to Directive 2006/48/EC.

15. For the purposes of point 14 qualifying items shall include:

(a)

long and short positions in assets qualifying for a credit quality step corresponding at least to investment grade in the mapping process described in Title V, Chapter 2, Section 3, Sub‐section 1 of Directive 2006/48/EC;

(b)

long and short positions in assets which, because of the solvency of the issuer, have a PD which is not higher than that of the assets referred to under (a), under the approach described in Title V, Chapter 2, Section 3, Sub‐section 2 of Directive 2006/48/EC;

(c)

long and short positions in assets for which a credit assessment by a nominated external credit assessment institution is not available and which meet the following conditions:

(i)

they are considered by the institutions concerned to be sufficiently liquid;

(ii)

their investment quality is, according to the institution's own discretion, at least equivalent to that of the assets referred to under point (a); and

(iii)

they are listed on at least one regulated market in a Member State or on a stock exchange in a third country provided that the exchange is recognised by the competent authorities of the relevant Member State;

(d)

long and short positions in assets issued by institutions subject to the capital adequacy requirements set out in Directive 2006/48/EC which are considered by the institutions concerned to be sufficiently liquid and whose investment quality is, according to the institution's own discretion, at least equivalent to that of the assets referred to under point (a); and

(e)

securities issued by institutions that are deemed to be of equivalent, or higher, credit quality than those associated with credit quality step 2 under the rules for the risk weighting of exposures to institutions set out in Articles 78 to 83 of Directive 2006/48/EC and that are subject to supervisory and regulatory arrangements comparable to those under this Directive.

The manner in which the debt instruments are assessed shall be subject to scrutiny by the competent authorities, which shall overturn the judgment of the institution if they consider that the instruments concerned are subject to too high a degree of specific risk to be qualifying items.

16. The competent authorities shall require the institution to apply the maximum weighting shown in Table 1 to point 14 to instruments that show a particular risk because of the insufficient solvency of the issuer.