Article 265
Scope and operational requirements for the Internal Assessment Approach
1.
Institutions may calculate the risk-weighted exposure amounts for unrated positions in ABCP programmes or ABCP transactions under the Internal Assessment Approach in accordance with Article 266 where the conditions set out in paragraph 2 of this Article are met.
Where an institution has received permission to apply the Internal Assessment Approach in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article, and a specific position in an ABCP programme or ABCP transaction falls within the scope of application covered by such permission, the institution shall apply that approach to calculate the risk-weighted exposure amount of that position.
2.
The competent authorities shall grant institutions permission to apply the Internal Assessment Approach within a clearly defined scope of application where all of the following conditions are met:
(a)
all positions in the commercial paper issued from the ABCP programme are rated positions;
(b)
the internal assessment of the credit quality of the position reflects the publicly available assessment methodology of one or more ECAIs for the rating of securitisation positions backed by underlying exposures of the type securitised;
(c)
the commercial paper issued from the ABCP programme is predominantly issued to third-party investors;
(d)
the institution’s internal assessment process is at least as conservative as the publicly available assessments of those ECAIs which have provided an external rating for the commercial paper issued from the ABCP programme, in particular with regard to stress factors and other relevant quantitative elements;
(e)
the institution’s internal assessment methodology takes into account all relevant publicly available rating methodologies of the ECAIs that rate the commercial paper of the ABCP programme and includes rating grades corresponding to the credit assessments of ECAIs. The institution shall document in its internal records an explanatory statement describing how the requirements set out in this point have been met and shall update such statement on a regular basis;
(f)
the institution uses the internal assessment methodology for internal risk management purposes, including in its decision-making, management information and internal capital allocation processes;
(g)
internal or external auditors, an ECAI, or the institution’s internal credit review or risk management function perform regular reviews of the internal assessment process and the quality of the internal assessments of the credit quality of the institution’s exposures to an ABCP programme or ABCP transaction;
(h)
the institution tracks the performance of its internal ratings over time to evaluate the performance of its internal assessment methodology and makes adjustments, as necessary, to that methodology when the performance of the exposures routinely diverges from that indicated by the internal ratings;
(i)
the ABCP programme includes underwriting and liability management standards in the form of guidelines to the programme administrator on, at least:
(i)
the asset eligibility criteria, subject to point (j);
(ii)
the types and monetary value of the exposures arising from the provision of liquidity facilities and credit enhancements;
(iii)
the loss distribution between the securitisation positions in the ABCP programme or ABCP transaction;
(iv)
the legal and economic isolation of the transferred assets from the entity selling the assets;
(j)
the asset eligibility criteria in the ABCP programme provide for, at least:
(i)
exclusion of the purchase of assets that are significantly past due or defaulted;
(ii)
limitation of excessive concentration to individual obligor or geographic area; and
(iii)
limitation of the tenor of the assets to be purchased;
(k)
an analysis of the asset seller’s credit risk and business profile is performed including, at least, an assessment of the seller’s:
(i)
past and expected future financial performance;
(ii)
current market position and expected future competitiveness;
(iii)
leverage, cash flow, interest coverage and debt rating; and
(iv)
underwriting standards, servicing capabilities, and collection processes;
(l)
the ABCP programme has collection policies and processes that take into account the operational capability and credit quality of the servicer and comprises features that mitigate performance-related risks of the seller and the servicer. For the purposes of this point, performance-related risks may be mitigated through triggers based on the seller or servicer’s current credit quality to prevent commingling of funds in the event of the seller’s or servicer’s default;
(m)
the aggregated estimate of loss on an asset pool that may be purchased under the ABCP programme takes into account all sources of potential risk, such as credit and dilution risk;
(n)
where the seller-provided credit enhancement is sized based only on credit-related losses and dilution risk is material for the particular asset pool, the ABCP programme comprises a separate reserve for dilution risk;
(o)
the size of the required enhancement level in the ABCP programme is calculated taking into account several years of historical information, including losses, delinquencies, dilutions, and the turnover rate of the receivables;
(p)
the ABCP programme comprises structural features in the purchase of exposures in order to mitigate potential credit deterioration of the underlying portfolio. Such features may include wind-down triggers specific to a pool of exposures;
(q)
the institution evaluates the characteristics of the underlying asset pool, such as its weighted-average credit score, and identifies any concentrations to an individual obligor or geographic area and the granularity of the asset pool.
3.
Where the institution’s internal audit, credit review, or risk management functions perform the review provided for in point (g) of paragraph 2, those functions shall be independent from the institution’s internal functions dealing with ABCP programme business and customer relations.
4.
Institutions which have received permission to apply the Internal Assessment Approach shall not revert to the use of other methods for positions that fall within scope of application of the Internal Assessment Approach unless both of the following conditions are met:
(a)
the institution has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the competent authority that the institution has good cause to do so;
(b)
the institution has received the prior permission of the competent authority.