Article 8
Operational requirements
1.
Credit institutions shall have policies and limits in place to ensure that the holdings of liquid assets comprising their liquidity buffer remain appropriately diversified at all times. For those purposes, credit institutions shall take into account the extent of diversification between the various categories of liquid assets and within the same category of liquid assets referred to in Chapter 2 of this Title and any other relevant diversification factors, such as types of issuers, counterparties or the geographical location of those issuers and counterparties.
Competent authorities may impose specific restrictions or requirements on a credit institution's holdings of liquid assets to ensure compliance with the requirement set out in this paragraph. Any such restriction or requirement, however, shall not apply to:
(a)
the following categories of level 1 assets:
(i)
banknotes and coins referred to in Article 10(1)(a);
(ii)
the exposures to central banks referred to in points (b) and (d) of Article 10(1);
(iii)
assets representing claims on or guaranteed by the multilateral developments banks and international organisations referred to in Article 10(1)(g);
(b)
the categories of level 1 assets representing claims on or guaranteed by the central or regional governments, local authorities or public sector entities referred to Article 10(1)(c) and (d), provided that the credit institution holds the relevant asset to cover stressed net liquidity outflows incurred in the currency of the Member State or third country or the asset is issued by the central or regional governments, local authorities or public sector entities of the credit institution's home Member State;
(c)
the restricted-use committed liquidity facility referred to in point (d) of Article 12(1).
2.
Credit institutions shall have ready access to their holdings of liquid assets and be able to monetise them at any time during the 30 calendar day stress period via outright sale or repurchase agreement on generally accepted repurchase markets. A liquid asset shall be deemed readily accessible to a credit institution where there are no legal or practical impediments to the credit institution's ability to monetise such an asset in a timely fashion.
Assets used to provide credit enhancement in structured transactions or to cover operational costs of the credit institutions shall not be deemed as readily accessible to a credit institution.
Assets held in a third country where there are restrictions to their free transferability shall be deemed readily accessible only insofar as the credit institution uses those assets to meet liquidity outflows in that third country. Assets held in a non-convertible currency shall be deemed readily accessible only insofar as the credit institution uses those assets to meet liquidity outflows in that currency.
3.
Credit institutions shall ensure that their liquid assets are under the control of a specific liquidity management function within the credit institution. Compliance with this requirement shall be demonstrated to the competent authority either by:
(a)
placing the liquid assets in a separate pool under the direct management of the liquidity function and with the sole intent of using them as a source of contingent funds, including during stress periods;
(b)
putting in place internal systems and controls to give the liquidity management function effective operational control to monetise the holdings of liquid assets at any point in the 30 calendar day stress period and to access the contingent funds without directly conflicting with any existing business or risk management strategies. In particular, an asset shall not be included in the liquidity buffer where monetisation of the asset without replacement throughout the 30 calendar day stress period would remove a hedge that would create an open risk position in excess of the internal limits of the credit institution;
(c)
a combination of options (a) and (b), provided that the competent authority has deemed such combination acceptable.
4.
Credit institutions shall regularly, and at least once a year, monetise a sufficiently representative sample of their holdings of liquid assets by means of outright sale or simple repurchase agreement on a generally accepted repurchase market. Credit institutions shall develop strategies for disposing of samples of liquid assets which are adequate to:
(a)
test the access to the market for those assets and their usability;
(b)
check that the credit institution's processes for the timely monetisation of assets are effective;
(c)
minimise the risk of sending a negative signal to the market as a result of the credit institution's monetising its assets during stress periods.
The requirement laid down in the first subparagraph shall not apply to level 1 assets referred to in Article 10, other than extremely high quality covered bonds, to the restricted-use committed liquidity facility referred to in subparagraph (d) of Article 12(1) or to the deposits and other liquidity funding in cooperatives networks and institutional protection schemes referred to in Article 16.
For liquid assets held in a cover pool liquidity buffer, the requirement laid down in the first subparagraph shall be considered as fulfilled, where the credit institution regularly, and at least once a year, monetises liquid assets that constitute a sufficiently representative sample of its holdings of assets in the cover pool liquidity buffer without having to be part of that buffer.
5.
The requirement set out in paragraph 2 shall not prevent credit institutions from hedging the market risk associated with their liquid assets provided that the following conditions are met:
(a)
the credit institution puts in place appropriate internal arrangements in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 to ensure that those assets continue to be readily available and under the control of the liquidity management function;
(b)
the net liquidity outflows and inflows that would result in the event of an early close-out of the hedge are taken into account in the valuation of the relevant asset in accordance with Article 9.
6.
Credit institutions shall ensure that the currency denomination of their liquid assets is consistent with the distribution by currency of their net liquidity outflows. However, where appropriate, competent authorities may require credit institutions to restrict currency mismatch by setting limits on the proportion of net liquidity outflows in a currency that can be met during a stress period by holding liquid assets not denominated in that currency. That restriction may only be applied for the reporting currency or a currency that may be subject to separate reporting in accordance with Article 415(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013. In determining the level of any restriction on currency mismatch that may be applied in accordance with this paragraph, competent authorities shall at least have regard to:
(a)
whether the credit institution has the ability to do any of the following:
(i)
use the liquid assets to generate liquidity in the currency and jurisdiction in which the net liquidity outflows arise;
(ii)
swap currencies and raise funds in foreign currency markets during stressed conditions consistent with the 30 calendar day stress period set out in Article 4;
(iii)
transfer a liquidity surplus from one currency to another and across jurisdictions and legal entities within its group during stressed conditions consistent with the 30 calendar day stress period set out in Article 4;
(b)
the impact of sudden, adverse exchange rate movements on existing mismatched positions and on the effectiveness of any foreign exchange hedges in place.
Any restriction on currency mismatch imposed in accordance with this paragraph shall be deemed to constitute a specific liquidity requirement as referred to in Article 105 of Directive 2013/36/EU.