Article 155
1.
Institutions shall determine their risk-weighted exposure amounts for equity exposures, excluding those deducted in accordance with Part Two or subject to a 250 % risk weight in accordance with Article 48, in accordance with the approaches set out in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article. An institution may apply different approaches to different equity portfolios where the institution itself uses different approaches for internal risk management purposes. Where an institution uses different approaches, the choice of the PD/LGD approach or the internal models approach shall be made consistently, including over time and with the approach used for the internal risk management of the relevant equity exposure, and shall not be determined by regulatory arbitrage considerations.
Institutions may treat equity exposures to ancillary services undertakings in accordance with the treatment of other non credit- obligation assets.
2.
Under the simple risk weight approach, the risk-weighted exposure amount shall be calculated in accordance with the formula:
Risk – weighted exposure amount = RW * exposure value,
where:
Risk weight (RW) = 190 % for private equity exposures in sufficiently diversified portfolios.
Risk weight (RW) = 290 % for exchange traded equity exposures.
Risk weight (RW) = 370 % for all other equity exposures.
Short cash positions and derivative instruments held in the non-trading book are permitted to offset long positions in the same individual stocks provided that these instruments have been explicitly designated as hedges of specific equity exposures and that they provide a hedge for at least another year. Other short positions are to be treated as if they are long positions with the relevant risk weight assigned to the absolute value of each position. In the context of maturity mismatched positions, the method is that for corporate exposures as set out in Article 162(5).
Institutions may recognise unfunded credit protection obtained on an equity exposure in accordance with the methods set out in Chapter 4.
3.
Under the PD/LGD approach, risk-weighted exposure amounts shall be calculated according to the formulas in Article 153(1). If institutions do not have sufficient information to use the definition of default set out in Article 178, a scaling factor of 1,5 shall be assigned to the risk weights.
At the individual exposure level the sum of the expected loss amount multiplied by 12,5 and the risk-weighted exposure amount shall not exceed the exposure value multiplied by 12,5.
Institutions may recognise unfunded credit protection obtained on an equity exposure in accordance with the methods set out in Chapter 4. This shall be subject to an LGD of 90 % on the exposure to the provider of the hedge. For private equity exposures in sufficiently diversified portfolios an LGD of 65 % may be used. For these purposes M shall be five years.
4.
Under the internal models approach, the risk-weighted exposure amount shall be the potential loss on the institution's equity exposures as derived using internal value-at-risk models subject to the 99th percentile, one-tailed confidence interval of the difference between quarterly returns and an appropriate risk-free rate computed over a long-term sample period, multiplied by 12,5. The risk-weighted exposure amounts at the equity portfolio level shall not be less than the total of the sums of the following:
(b)
the corresponding expected loss amounts multiplied by 12,5.
The amounts referred to in point (a) and (b) shall be calculated on the basis of the PD values set out in Article 165(1) and the corresponding LGD values set out in Article 165(2).
Institutions may recognise unfunded credit protection obtained on an equity position.