ECB clarifies supervisory role on Greek NPL securitisation and beneficial owners

The ECB's role in securitisations, including those under the Hellenic Asset Protection Scheme (HAPS), primarily involves assessing Significant Risk Transfer (SRT) in line with Article 244 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR).

This assessment is conducted on a case-by-case basis to ensure originating entities transfer a significant portion of credit risk to third-party investors.

As part of this, the ECB verifies that Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) are properly segregated and deconsolidated from originating banks, with no retained control.

However, the ECB is not responsible for monitoring the beneficial owners of these SPVs beyond the SRT assessment.

Under HAPS, the public guarantee applies only to senior notes, which were entirely purchased and retained by the originating Greek banks.

Consequently, third-party investors acquiring mezzanine and junior notes do not benefit from any state guarantee.

The ECB Banking Supervision does not hold a mandate to ensure compliance with transparency requirements for non-performing loan securitisations under the Credit Servicers and Credit Purchasers Directive (EU) 2021/2167. This supervisory role is assigned to national competent authorities by Article 21 of the Directive.

Additionally, credit institutions are largely outside this Directive's scope.

While banks supply legal entity identifiers of credit purchasers to prudential supervisors, this data does not encompass beneficial owner information as defined by the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (EU) 2015/849. The ECB uses purchaser information exclusively for its risk transfer assessments, not for beneficial ownership verification.