For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply:

1. (1)

   ‘national powers decisions’ mean decisions taken by the ECB in exercise of its supervisory powers granted under national law that are not explicitly provided for in Union law;

2. (2)
   ‘acquisition of a holding’ means the acquisition of a direct or indirect holding of capital or of voting rights in another entity, including as a result of the establishment of a new entity, other than the acquisition of a qualifying holding within the meaning of Article 22 of Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council6;
3. (3)

   ‘merger’ means (a) an operation whereby one or more companies, on being dissolved with or without going into liquidation, transfer all of their assets and liabilities to an existing company or a new company, in exchange for the issue to their shareholders of securities or shares representing the capital of that existing company or new company, or (b) any transaction that is a merger under the relevant national law;

4. (4)

   ‘demerger’ means (a) an operation whereby one or more companies split part of their assets and liabilities and form a new company that holds these assets and liabilities, or (b) any transaction that is a demerger under the relevant national law;

5. (5)

   ‘third country or territory’ means a country or territory outside the European Economic Area;

6. (6)

   ‘related party’ means a natural person that is related to a credit institution or a close member of that person's family, or a legal person that is related to a credit institution, in accordance with the relevant national law;

7. (7)

   ‘SREP decision’ means the decision adopted by the ECB on the basis of Article 16 of Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013 following the annual supervisory review and evaluation process within the meaning of Article 97 of Directive 2013/36/EU;

8. (8)
   ‘liquidity coverage ratio’ (LCR) means the ratio as defined in Article 4 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/617;
9. (9)
   ‘equivalent supervisory and regulatory standards’ are supervisory and regulatory requirements or arrangements applied by a third country or territory that are recognised by the European Commission as equivalent to those applied in the Union in accordance with Articles 107(4) and 114(7) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council8. The relevant third countries and territories are listed in Annexes I and IV to Commission Implementing Decision 2014/908/EU9;
10. (10)

    ‘delegation decision’ and ‘delegated decision’ have the same meaning as in points (2) and (4) of Article 3 of Decision (EU) 2017/933 (ECB/2016/40), respectively;

11. (11)

    ‘heads of work units’ means the heads of work units of the ECB to whom the power to adopt national powers decisions is delegated;

12. (12)

    ‘non-objection procedure’ means the procedure set out in Article 26(8) of Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013, and further specified in Article 13g of Decision ECB/2004/2;

13. (13)

    ‘negative decision’ means a decision that does not or does not fully grant the permission as requested by the significant supervised entity. A decision with ancillary provisions such as conditions or obligations shall be considered as a negative decision unless such ancillary provisions (a) ensure that the supervised entity fulfils the requirements of relevant national law and have been agreed in writing, or (b) merely restate one or more of the existing requirements that the institution has to comply with pursuant to a relevant provision of national law or require information on the fulfilment of one or more of such requirements;

14. (14)
    ‘significant supervised entity’ means a significant supervised entity as defined in point (16) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) No 468/2014 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/17)10;
15. (15)

    ‘branch’ means a branch as defined in Article 4(1)(17) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;

16. (16)

    ‘representative office’ means an office that promotes or assists the activities of a supervised entity but which does not carry out the business of a credit institution;

17. (17)

    ‘non-core support services’ means administrative services, customer services, debt collection, e-signatures or other similar services in connection with the business of a credit institution;

18. (18)

    ‘ECB guide’ means any document, adopted by the Governing Council upon a proposal from the Supervisory Board and published on the ECB's website and which gives guidance on the ECB's interpretation of legal requirements.