Article 194
Principles governing the eligibility of credit risk mitigation techniques
1.
The technique used to provide the credit protection together with the actions and steps taken and procedures and policies implemented by the lending institution shall be such as to result in credit protection arrangements which are legally effective and enforceable in all relevant jurisdictions.
The lending institution shall provide, upon request of the competent authority, the most recent version of the independent, written and reasoned legal opinion or opinions that it used to establish whether its credit protection arrangement or arrangements meet the condition laid down in the first subparagraph.
2.
The lending institution shall take all appropriate steps to ensure the effectiveness of the credit protection arrangement and to address the risks related to that arrangement.
3.
Institutions may recognise funded credit protection in the calculation of the effect of credit risk mitigation only where the assets relied upon for protection meet both of the following conditions:
(a)
they are included in the list of eligible assets set out in Articles 197 to 200, as applicable;
(b)
they are sufficiently liquid and their value over time sufficiently stable to provide appropriate certainty as to the credit protection achieved having regard to the approach used to calculate risk-weighted exposure amounts and to the degree of recognition allowed.
4.
Institutions may recognise funded credit protection in the calculation of the effect of credit risk mitigation only where the lending institution has the right to liquidate or retain, in a timely manner, the assets from which the protection derives in the event of the default, insolvency or bankruptcy — or other credit event set out in the transaction documentation — of the obligor and, where applicable, of the custodian holding the collateral. The degree of correlation between the value of the assets relied upon for protection and the credit quality of the obligor shall not be too high.
5.
In the case of unfunded credit protection, a protection provider shall qualify as an eligible protection provider only where the protection provider is included in the list of eligible protection providers set out in Article 201 or 202, as applicable.
6.
In the case of unfunded credit protection, a protection agreement shall qualify as an eligible protection agreement only where it meets both the following conditions:
(a)
it is included in the list of eligible protection agreements set out in Articles 203 and 204(1);
(b)
it is legally effective and enforceable in the relevant jurisdictions, to provide appropriate certainty as to the credit protection achieved having regard to the approach used to calculate risk-weighted exposure amounts and to the degree of recognition allowed;
(c)
the protection provider meets the criteria laid down in paragraph 5.
7.
Credit protection shall comply with the requirements set out in Section 3, as applicable.
8.
An institution shall be able to demonstrate to competent authorities that it has adequate risk management processes to control those risks to which it may be exposed as a result of carrying out credit risk mitigation practices.
9.
Notwithstanding the fact that credit risk mitigation has been taken into account for the purposes of calculating risk-weighted exposure amounts and, where applicable, expected loss amounts, institutions shall continue to undertake a full credit risk assessment of the underlying exposure and be in a position to demonstrate the fulfilment of this requirement to the competent authorities. In the case of repurchase transactions and securities lending or commodities lending or borrowing transactions the underlying exposure shall, for the purposes of this paragraph only, be deemed to be the net amount of the exposure.