EBA ancillary services undertakings final guidelines and report on prudential consolidation under CRR

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published its final guidelines on ancillary services undertakings. It specifies criteria for identifying activities referred to in Article 4(1)(18) of the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), which was amended by Regulation 2024/1623 (CRR III), to clarify the definition of ancillary services undertaking. The guidelines define how to identify: (a) activities that should be considered a "direct extension of banking"; (b) activities that should be considered "ancillary to banking"; and (c) "other similar activities" that the EBA may consider similar to those referred to in the CRR.

Following feedback to the July consultation, the main changes include: (i) removing two proposed criteria for identifying "direct extensions of banking", specifically the references to activities involving maturity/liquidity transformation, leverage or credit‑risk transfer, as these were viewed as circular and vague; and (ii) removing the specific provision for undertakings jointly owned by institutional protection scheme members, meaning they will be assessed under the general rules. The guidelines will be translated into all official EU languages and published on the EBA website. The deadline for competent authorities to report whether they comply with the guidelines will be two months after the publication of the translations.

The EBA also published a report on the prudential consolidation framework, setting out targeted recommendations that may support the European Commission in considering further legislative adjustments to the CRR framework. These include:

• Simplification of sub-consolidation requirements, to reduce complexity for groups with multiple consolidation layers.
• Improved alignment with accounting standards, both in terms of undertakings included within the scope of consolidation and relevant methods to be applied.
• Refinement of the definition of control, to ensure consistent interpretation and convergence across jurisdictions.
• Further clarity on how to determine the perimeter of prudential consolidation, especially when an insurance undertaking within a bank-led financial conglomerate acquires a financial institution and the so-called "Danish compromise" (Article 49 of the CRR) is applied by the parent institution.

Return to main website.