National Bank of Belgium to raise countercyclical capital buffer to 1.25% while scrapping mortgage buffer and cutting total requirements to about EUR 3.3 billion from July 2026

The National Bank of Belgium has announced changes to its macroprudential capital framework for 2026, lowering overall capital requirements for Belgian mortgage exposures and simplifying the regime by folding the mortgage-specific buffer into a single, broader countercyclical capital buffer. The recalibration is driven by reduced vulnerabilities in banks’ mortgage loan portfolios and a preference for a more flexible, system-wide buffer in an uncertain economic and geopolitical environment. On 1 January 2026, the countercyclical capital buffer will be raised from 1% to 1.25%, with the increase taking effect on 1 July 2026 after a six-month implementation period, lifting the buffer amount from around EUR 2.7 billion to EUR 3.3 billion. At the same time, the dedicated mortgage portfolio buffer of about EUR 1.3 billion will be abolished, so that from 1 July 2026 total macroprudential capital requirements fall from roughly EUR 3.9 billion to EUR 3.3 billion. The NBB linked the lower mortgage-related requirement to improvements in new lending quality since the 2020 prudential expectations, including a reduced share of high loan-to-value lending, and noted that default probabilities and potential losses on mortgage portfolios have declined. A royal decree approving the NBB’s revised regulation has been signed by the minister of finance, Jan Jambon, and is expected to be published in the Moniteur belge in the coming weeks. The NBB indicated it will continue to adjust the countercyclical capital buffer in line with financial cycle developments, particularly credit growth to the real economy.