A minimum first-best credit quality assessment of Credit Quality Step 3 in the Eurosystem's harmonised rating scale, expressed in the form of at least one public credit rating provided by an external credit assessment institution (ECAI) accepted within the Eurosystem credit assessment framework, shall apply.

A 70 % issue share limit per international securities identification number to the joint holdings under the first ( 3 ) (CBPP1) and second ( 4 ) (CBPP2) covered bond purchase programmes and the CBPP3 and to the other holdings of Eurosystem central banks shall apply.

They shall be denominated in euro, held and settled in the euro area.

Covered bonds issued by credit institutions whose access to Eurosystem monetary policy operations has been limited, suspended or excluded pursuant to Guideline (EU) 2015/510 (ECB/2014/60) shall be automatically excluded from purchases under the CBPP3 for the duration of the limitation, suspension or exclusion. By derogation from the first sentence of this point (d), the Governing Council shall retain its power, following a case-by-case assessment, to reassess the exclusion of covered bonds issued by a credit institution whose access to Eurosystem monetary policy operations has been limited, suspended or excluded pursuant to Guideline (EU) 2015/510 (ECB/2014/60) and to revoke the exclusion, if deemed appropriate.

For covered bonds which currently do not achieve the Credit Quality Step 3 rating in Cyprus and Greece, a minimum asset rating at the level of the maximum achievable covered bond rating defined by the respective ECAI for the jurisdiction shall be required. This shall be required for as long as the Eurosystem's minimum credit quality threshold is not applied in the collateral eligibility requirements for marketable debt instruments issued or guaranteed by the Greek or Cypriot governments (pursuant to Article 8(2) of Guideline ECB/2014/31 ( 5 )), and a 30 % issue share limit per international securities identification number is applicable to the joint holdings of the CBPP1, CBPP2, CBPP3 and the other holdings of Eurosystem central banks, and provided that the covered bonds include all of the following elements in order to achieve risk equivalence:

Covered bonds retained by their issuer shall be eligible for purchases under the CBPP3, provided that they fulfil the eligibility criteria specified above.

Purchases of nominal covered bonds at a negative yield to maturity (or yield to worst) equal to or above the deposit facility rate shall be permitted. Purchases of nominal covered bonds at a negative yield to maturity (or yield to worst) below the deposit facility rate shall be permitted to the extent necessary.

The issuer of the covered bonds is not an entity, whether publicly or privately owned, that:

Covered bonds shall be excluded from purchases under the CBPP3 where they have a conditional pass-through structure, whereby pre-defined events lead to an extension of the bond's maturity and a switch to a payment structure dependent primarily on cash flows generated by the assets in the underlying cover pool.