(1)

Decision (EU) 2019/1376 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2019/23) (3) specifies the criteria for the delegation of decision-making powers to the heads of work units of the European Central Bank (ECB) for the adoption of decisions concerning passporting, acquisition of qualifying holdings and withdrawal of authorisations of credit institutions. The experience gained in the application of that Decision has shown that certain clarifications and technical amendments are necessary, in particular for reasons of consistency and certainty in the application of those criteria.

(2)

The procedure for delegating decision-making powers should be clarified in respect of passporting decisions, qualifying holding decisions and withdrawal decisions where heads of work units have concerns with regard to the interconnectedness of such a decision with one or more other decisions requiring supervisory approval. This may be the case where the outcome of the relevant supervisory assessment directly impacts one or more of those other decisions and therefore the decisions should be considered simultaneously by the same decision-maker in order to prevent conflicting outcomes.

(3)

On 24 June 2020, the Governing Council decided to establish close cooperation between the ECB and the Republic of Bulgaria (4), and between the ECB and the Republic of Croatia (5). Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013 provides that to carry out certain tasks in relation to credit institutions established in a Member State whose currency is not the euro where close cooperation has been established in accordance with that Article, the ECB may address instructions to the national competent authority of the relevant Member State. It is therefore appropriate to include such instructions among the acts that the ECB may adopt by means of delegation to heads of work units pursuant to the relevant provisions of Decision (EU) 2019/1376 (ECB/2019/23).

(4)

A passporting decision, qualifying holding decision or withdrawal decision in a case where the complexity of the assessment so requires is not adopted by means of a delegated decision, but is adopted instead under the non-objection procedure. It should be clarified that, in addition, there may be cases in which the sensitivity of the matter – in terms of impact on the ECB’s reputation and/or on the functioning of the Single Supervisory Mechanism – may require that a passporting decision, qualifying holding decision or withdrawal decision should be adopted under the non-objection procedure and not by means of a delegated decision.

(5)

The scope of qualifying holding decisions that are delegated should be extended to include cases where the group to which the proposed acquirer belongs already holds a qualifying holding in the target entity, no relevant threshold is crossed at group level, and the seller is outside the group. The underlying assessment in such cases would usually be straightforward as the relevant circumstances do not entail a substantial change in the ownership structure of the target entity and the assessment is therefore similar to the underlying assessment in cases of qualifying holdings resulting from intragroup reorganisations, decisions in respect of which are currently delegated.

(6)

Therefore, Decision (EU) 2019/1376 (ECB/2019/23) should be amended accordingly,

1.

in Article 1, the following point (15) is added:

2.

Article 3 is amended as follows:

3.

paragraph 1 of Article 4 is amended as follows:

4.

in paragraph 1 of Article 5, point (a) is replaced by the following: