European Central Bank Banking Supervision has completed a broad review of the supervisory guidance published on its website, aimed at making its communications clearer, more consistent and easier to use as part of a wider reform of European banking supervision. The review covered about 130 guides, reports, letters and methodologies that set out supervisory expectations and good practices in a non-binding way. It resulted in around 40 documents being discontinued because they were outdated, superseded or no longer relevant, while remaining available with a discontinued label for transparency and archival purposes. The ECB has also updated how supervisory publications are classified on its website to underline their non-binding nature and align presentation across publication types. A limited number of texts have already been, or will shortly be, revised to reflect regulatory developments and clarify expectations. Changes include clarifying in the Guide to the internal capital adequacy assessment process that the management buffer is a bank's own view of the capital needed to keep its business model sustainable and is not a supervisory requirement, removing content on the credit conversion factor from the Guide to internal models because the European Banking Authority is preparing guidelines on that topic, and deleting references to the credit valuation adjustment from two assessment guides to reflect Capital Requirements Regulation III. More extensive revisions are planned for several key publications. The draft guide on governance and risk culture will be replaced by a report on good practices in the first quarter of 2027 after revised European Banking Authority internal governance guidelines are finalised. Updated versions of the Guide to licence applications, the Guide on effective risk data aggregation and risk reporting, and the Guide to on-site inspections and internal model investigations are expected in the third quarter of 2026, fourth quarter of 2026 and by end-2026 respectively, while the review of the Guidance on leveraged transactions is due to be finalised by end-2026. The ECB said public consultations will be launched where substantial changes are needed.
European Central Bank - Banking Supervision2026-06-26
European Central Bank Banking Supervision streamlines supervisory guidance and discontinues around 40 outdated publications
European Central Bank Banking Supervision has reviewed about 130 supervisory guidance publications and discontinued around 40 that it considers outdated, superseded or no longer relevant. It also revised how those documents are classified to stress that they are non-binding. Further updates to several key guides are planned through end-2026 and the first quarter of 2027, with consultations where changes are substantial.