Article 52
Additional Tier 1 instruments
1.
Capital instruments shall qualify as Additional Tier 1 instruments only if the following conditions are met:
(a)
the instruments are directly issued by an institution and fully paid up;
(b)
the instruments are not owned by any of the following:
(i)
the institution or its subsidiaries;
(ii)
an undertaking in which the institution has a participation in the form of ownership, direct or by way of control, of 20 % or more of the voting rights or capital of that undertaking;
(c)
the acquisition of ownership of the instruments is not funded directly or indirectly by the institution;
(d)
the instruments rank below Tier 2 instruments in the event of the insolvency of the institution;
(e)
the instruments are neither secured nor subject to a guarantee that enhances the seniority of the claims by any of the following:
(i)
the institution or its subsidiaries;
(ii)
the parent undertaking of the institution or its subsidiaries;
(iii)
the parent financial holding company or its subsidiaries;
(iv)
the mixed activity holding company or its subsidiaries;
(v)
the mixed financial holding company or its subsidiaries;
(vi)
any undertaking that has close links with entities referred to in points (i) to (v);
(f)
the instruments are not subject to any arrangement, contractual or otherwise, that enhances the seniority of the claim under the instruments in insolvency or liquidation;
(g)
the instruments are perpetual and the provisions governing them include no incentive for the institution to redeem them;
(h)
where the instruments include one or more early redemption options including call options, the options are exercisable at the sole discretion of the issuer;
(i)
the instruments may be called, redeemed or repurchased only where the conditions laid down in Article 77 are met, and not before five years after the date of issuance except where the conditions laid down in Article 78(4) are met;
(j)
the provisions governing the instruments do not indicate explicitly or implicitly that the instruments would be called, redeemed or repurchased, as applicable, by the institution other than in the case of the insolvency or liquidation of the institution and the institution does not otherwise provide such an indication;
(k)
the institution does not indicate explicitly or implicitly that the competent authority would consent to a request to call, redeem or repurchase the instruments;
(l)
distributions under the instruments meet the following conditions:
(i)
they are paid out of distributable items;
(ii)
the level of distributions made on the instruments will not be amended on the basis of the credit standing of the institution or its parent undertaking;
(iii)
the provisions governing the instruments give the institution full discretion at all times to cancel the distributions on the instruments for an unlimited period and on a non-cumulative basis, and the institution may use such cancelled payments without restriction to meet its obligations as they fall due;
(iv)
cancellation of distributions does not constitute an event of default of the institution;
(v)
the cancellation of distributions imposes no restrictions on the institution;
(m)
the instruments do not contribute to a determination that the liabilities of an institution exceed its assets, where such a determination constitutes a test of insolvency under applicable national law;
(n)
the provisions governing the instruments require that, upon the occurrence of a trigger event, the principal amount of the instruments be written down on a permanent or temporary basis or the instruments be converted to Common Equity Tier 1 instruments;
(o)
the provisions governing the instruments include no feature that could hinder the recapitalisation of the institution;
(p)
where the issuer is established in a third country and has been designated in accordance with Article 12 of Directive 2014/59/EU as part of a resolution group the resolution entity of which is established in the Union or where the issuer is established in a Member State, the law or contractual provisions governing the instruments require that, upon a decision by the resolution authority to exercise the write-down and conversion powers referred to in Article 59 of that Directive, the principal amount of the instruments is to be written down on a permanent basis or the instruments are to be converted to Common Equity Tier 1 instruments;
where the issuer is established in a third country and has not been designated in accordance with Article 12 of Directive 2014/59/EU as part of a resolution group the resolution entity of which is established in the Union, the law or contractual provisions governing the instruments require that, upon a decision by the relevant third-country authority, the principal amount of the instruments is to be written down on a permanent basis or the instruments are to be converted into Common Equity Tier 1 instruments;
(q)
where the issuer is established in a third country and has been designated in accordance with Article 12 of Directive 2014/59/EU as part of a resolution group the resolution entity of which is established in the Union or where the issuer is established in a Member State, the instruments may only be issued under, or be otherwise subject to the laws of a third country where, under those laws, the exercise of the write-down and conversion powers referred to in Article 59 of that Directive is effective and enforceable on the basis of statutory provisions or legally enforceable contractual provisions that recognise resolution or other write-down or conversion actions;
(r)
the instruments are not subject to set-off or netting arrangements that would undermine their capacity to absorb losses.
The condition set out in point (d) of the first subparagraph shall be deemed to be met notwithstanding the fact that the instruments are included in Additional Tier 1 or Tier 2 by virtue of Article 484(3), provided that they rank pari passu.
For the purposes of point (a) of the first subparagraph, only the part of a capital instrument that is fully paid up shall be eligible to qualify as an Additional Tier 1 instrument.
2.
EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify all the following:
(a)
the form and nature of incentives to redeem;
(b)
the nature of any write up of the principal amount of an Additional Tier 1 instrument following a write down of its principal amount on a temporary basis;
(c)
the procedures and timing for the following:
(i)
determining that a trigger event has occurred;
(ii)
writing up the principal amount of an Additional Tier 1 instrument following a write down of its principal amount on a temporary basis;
(d)
features of instruments that could hinder the recapitalisation of the institution;
(e)
the use of special purpose entities for indirect issuance of own funds instruments.
EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 28 July 2013.
Power is delegated to the Commission to adopt the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.