Published on 30 July 2019
Resolution assessment and public disclosure by firms - PS15/19
Overview
This Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) Policy Statement (PS) provides feedback to responses to the PRA’s Consultation Paper (CP) CP31/18 ‘Resolution assessment and public disclosure by firms’ (‘CP31/18’). CP31/18 was published as part of a joint package of proposals on the Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF), together with the Bank of England’s (Bank) consultation on ‘The Bank of England’s approach to assessing resolvability’.
This PS also contains the PRA’s final policy:
- the Resolution Assessment Part of the PRA Rulebook (the ’Rules’) (Appendix 1), and
- Supervisory Statement (SS) 4/19 ‘Resolution assessment and public disclosure by firms’ (Appendix 2).
This PS is relevant to UK banks and building societies with retail deposits equal to or greater than £50 billion on an individual or consolidated basis, as at the date of their most recent annual accounts (‘in-scope firms’).
Summary of responses
The Bank and the PRA received 18 responses to the consultation, including five from firms in scope of the rules.
Some respondents replied to the Bank and the PRA in a single response, others replied to the Bank and the PRA in separate responses. The PRA has worked with the Bank in considering all responses. Feedback concerning the Bank’s proposals made in the Bank’s consultation can be found in its Policy Statement, ‘The Bank of England’s approach to assessing resolvability’.
A number of observations were made with regards to the proposed rules and expectations in CP31/18. Feedback to these responses is set out in Chapter 2.
Implementation
The new rules will take effect on 1 August 2019.
The policy set out in this PS has been designed in the context of the current UK and EU regulatory framework. The PRA has assessed that the policy will not be affected in the event that the UK leaves the EU with no implementation period in place.
Policy Statement 15/19Appendices
- PRA RULEBOOK: CRR FIRMS: RESOLUTION ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT 2019 (pdf)
- SS4/19 ‘Resolution assessment and public disclosure by firms’
Published on 18 December 2018
Resolution assessment and public disclosure by firms - CP31/18
Note: Readers are encouraged to refer first to the joint Bank of England (Bank) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) ‘Introduction to the Resolvability Assessment Framework’ for an overview of the Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF), and a foreword from Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, and Sam Woods, Deputy Governor for Prudential Regulation, and CEO of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
Overview
In this Consultation Paper (CP), the PRA sets out proposed rules for UK banks and building societies with £50 billion or more in retail deposits on an individual or consolidated basis, as at the date of their most recent annual accounts, to assess their preparations for resolution, submit a report of their assessment to the PRA, and publish a summary of their report (‘public disclosure’). The CP also contains a draft Supervisory Statement (‘SS’) setting out the PRA’s expectations relevant to those rules. Drafts of the proposed rules are attached in Appendices 1 and 2 (‘Rules’) and the SS in Appendix 3 of this CP.
The purpose of the proposals in this CP is to contribute to ensuring that the firms that pose the greatest risk to UK financial stability are resolvable by 2022, and to increase firms’ accountability and encourage ownership of firms’ progress. The proposals are designed to ensure that firms are adequately preparing for resolution and that market participants and firms’ stakeholders are informed of these preparations.
The proposals are relevant to PRA-authorised firms in scope of the proposed rules (‘in-scope firms’).
This CP may result in a new Resolution Assessment Part of the PRA Rulebook and a new SS.
Summary of proposals
The PRA is proposing to introduce Rules whereby each in-scope firm would:
- carry out a realistic assessment of its preparations for resolution;
- include analysis of how it understands it would be resolved, any risks to its resolution and the steps taken or plans made to remove or reduce those risks;
- submit a report of its assessment to the PRA (‘report’) every two years starting from September 2020; and
- publicly disclose summaries of its report every two years starting from the end of May 2021.
This CP also includes proposals on:
- arrangements for a firm undergoing significant corporate restructuring; and
- board-level engagement and accountability for preparing and approving a firm’s report.
Responses and next steps
This consultation closed on Friday 5 April 2019. The PRA invited feedback on the proposals set out in this consultation, in particular on the proposed dates for in-scope firms’ submissions and disclosures and how they may interact with firms’ closed periods and other reporting requirements. Please address any comments or enquiries to RAF_Consultation_2018@bankofengland.co.uk.
It is likely that the PRA will consider changes to existing PRA policies in due course, with a view to better aligning them with the RAF.