
Banking (prudential standard) determination No. 4 of 2018
Prudential Standard APS 221 Large Exposures
Banking Act 1959
I, Wayne Byres, delegate of APRA:
- under subsection 11AF(3) of the Banking Act 1959 (the Act) REVOKE Banking (prudential standard) determination No. 5 of 2014, including Prudential Standard APS 221 Large Exposures, made under that Determination; and
- under subsection 11AF(1) of the Act DETERMINE Prudential Standard APS 221 Large Exposures, in the form set out in the Schedule, which applies to all ADIs and authorised NOHCs to the extent provided in paragraphs 2 to 5 of the prudential standard.
This instrument commences on 1 January 2019.
Dated: 23 August 2018
[Signed]
Wayne Byres
Chairman
APRA
Interpretation
In this Determination:
ADI has the meaning given in section 5 of the Act.
APRA means the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
authorised NOHC has the meaning given in section 5 of the Act.
Schedule
Prudential Standard APS 221 Large Exposures comprises the document commencing on the following page.
- The exposure value to be used in measuring large exposures is:
- for banking book on-balance sheet non-derivative assets, the accounting value of the exposure that is net of specific provisions and value adjustments. An ADI may only use exposure values gross of specific provisions and value adjustments with prior agreement from APRA;
- for instruments that give rise to CCR held in the banking book and trading book (excluding securities financing transactions (SFTs)), the exposure at default as measured under APS 180;
- for SFTs, the exposure value calculated using the simple or comprehensive approach to the recognition of collateral, and applying netting, as required under APS 112; and
- for banking book commitments, all committed exposures i.e. drawn on-balance sheet commitments and undrawn off-balance sheet commitments. Off-balance sheet commitments are to be converted into credit equivalent amounts by applying a 100 per cent conversion factor.
- Eligible CRM techniques for large exposure purposes are those which are allowed in APS 112. Forms of collateral that are only eligible under the internal ratings-based approach in APS 113 are not permitted to be used in reducing exposure values for large exposure purposes.
- An ADI must apply an eligible CRM technique in measuring exposures if the eligible CRM technique has been used in calculating the ADI’s capital requirements.
- Where paragraph 3 of this Attachment applies, an ADI must reduce the exposure value to a counterparty by the amount determined by applying the eligible CRM technique, being:
- for guarantees and credit derivatives, the value of the protected amount;
- when the ADI uses the simple approach to the recognition of collateral in APS 112, the value of the part of the claim collateralised by the market value of the recognised eligible collateral;
- for any instruments with CCR, the value of the collateral as recognised in the calculation of the CCR exposure value; and
- in the case of eligible collateral when the ADI applies the comprehensive approach to the recognition of collateral in APS 112, the value of the collateral adjusted after applying supervisory haircuts. ADIs must not use internally modelled haircuts.
- When the exposure value to a counterparty is reduced due to an eligible CRM technique, an ADI must also recognise an exposure to the CRM provider equal to the amount that the exposure value to the original counterparty was reduced (except for credit protection in the form of a credit default swap (CDS), which must be treated in accordance with paragraph 17(b) of this Attachment).
- If there is a maturity mismatch in respect of credit risk mitigants, the credit protection (for the purpose of calculating an ADI’s large exposures) must be adjusted applying the requirements in Attachments F, G and H of APS 112. ,
- Where an ADI has legally enforceable netting arrangements in place for loans and deposits, an ADI must use net credit exposures subject to the requirements for on-balance sheet netting for loans and deposits in APS 112.
- An ADI must aggregate banking book and trading book exposures to determine its total exposure to an individual counterparty.
- The exposure value for non-derivative debt instruments and equity instruments is the accounting value of the exposure i.e. the market value.
- The exposure value for swaps, futures, forwards and credit derivatives is calculated by converting the instruments into positions in accordance with Attachment B of APS 116 such that these instruments are decomposed into their individual legs. An ADI is to recognise only those transaction legs for which exposures are not excluded under paragraph 18 of this Prudential Standard.
- For credit derivatives that represent sold protection, the exposure to the referenced name is the amount due in the case that the referenced name triggers the instrument less the absolute market value of the credit protection. For credit-linked notes, the protection seller must consider positions in the bond of the note issuer as well as in the underlying credit referenced by the note.
- For the purposes of this Prudential Standard, the exposure value of an option is calculated as the change in the option value that would result from a default of the respective underlying instrument as follows:
- for a call, the exposure is the market value of the option. For a long call this is a positive value whereas for a short call this is a negative value; and
- for a put, the exposure value is the option’s strike price less the market value of the option. For a short put this is a positive value whereas for a long put this is a negative value.
An ADI must aggregate the resulting option exposures to each underlying counterparty. If there is a negative net exposure after aggregation of all option exposures, the option exposure must be set to nil.
- An ADI’s exposure to transactions (e.g. index positions, securitisations, hedge funds, investment funds) must be calculated according to the requirements for similar instruments in paragraphs 21 to 31 of this Attachment. This may result in the exposure value being assigned to a structured vehicle itself and treated as a distinct counterparty, to counterparties corresponding to the underlying assets or to an aggregated unknown exposure amount (which is treated as applying to a distinct counterparty to the ADI) when the ADI is unable to identify underlying assets.
- An ADI may offset long and short positions in the same issue i.e. if the issuer, coupon, currency and maturity are identical resulting in a net position in that specific issue in order to calculate its exposures to a particular issuer.
- An ADI may offset positions in different issues from the same issuer only when the short position is junior to, or ranks pari passu with, the long position. An ADI may allocate securities into broad categories of seniority (e.g. equity, subordinated debt and senior debt) to determine the relative seniority of positions.
- An ADI must not offset long and short positions in different issues relating to the same issuer in calculating its exposure values if it determines that allocation by seniority is not feasible.
- For positions hedged by credit derivatives:
- the hedge may be recognised provided the underlying of the hedge and the position hedged satisfy the requirement in paragraph 15 of this Attachment; and
- any reduction in exposure to the original counterparty must result in a new exposure to the credit protection provider (in accordance with paragraph 5 of this Attachment), except where the credit protection is in the form of a CDS and either the CDS provider, or the entity to which the credit protection applies, is not a financial institution. In this situation, the amount assigned to the CDS provider is the exposure at default calculated under APS 180.
- An ADI is not permitted to offset trading book positions against banking book positions.
- When the result of offsetting in the trading book is a net short position with an individual counterparty, this net short position does not need to be considered as an exposure for the purposes of this Prudential Standard.
- An ADI must calculate the exposure value for a covered bond using the full (i.e. 100 per cent) nominal value of its covered bond holding. The counterparty to which the exposure value is assigned is the issuer of the covered bond.
- Paragraphs 22 to 31 of this Attachment are effective from 1 January 2020.
- An ADI must calculate an exposure to a structured vehicle (e.g. funds, securitisation vehicles, structured finance products) which holds non-retail assets using the look-through requirements in paragraphs 23 to 27 of this Attachment.
- Where an ADI’s exposure to a structured vehicle is less than 0.25 per cent of the ADI’s Tier 1 Capital, or the ADI can demonstrate that all the underlying assets of the structured vehicle are less than 0.25 per cent of the ADI’s Tier 1 Capital, an ADI must assign an exposure value to the structured vehicle equal to the nominal exposure it has to the structured vehicle. In this case, an ADI is not required to look through the structured vehicle to identify the underlying assets.
- Where an ADI’s exposure value to at least one of the underlying assets of the structured vehicle is greater than or equal to 0.25 per cent of the ADI’s Tier 1 Capital, the ADI must assign an exposure value to the structured vehicle equal to the nominal exposure it has to the structured vehicle and:
- for each underlying asset of the structured vehicle that can be identified and that has an exposure value greater than or equal to 0.25 per cent of the ADI’s Tier 1 Capital, the ADI must look through the structured vehicle and assign the exposure values to the counterparties for each of the underlying assets; and
- for each underlying asset of the structured vehicle that cannot be identified and that has an exposure value greater than or equal to 0.25 per cent of the ADI’s Tier 1 Capital, the ADI must assign the exposure value to an unknown counterparty which is treated as a distinct counterparty to the ADI. An ADI must aggregate unknown counterparties across its exposures to structured vehicles as if they relate to a single counterparty to which large exposure limits would apply under paragraph 30 of this Prudential Standard.
- When an ADI has applied the look-through requirements for a structured vehicle under paragraph 24 of this Attachment, and all investors in the structured vehicle rank pari passu, the exposure value assigned to each counterparty is equal to the pro rata share that the ADI holds in the structured vehicle multiplied by the value of the underlying assets.
- When an ADI has applied the look-through requirements for a structured vehicle under paragraph 24 of this Attachment, and there are different seniority levels among investors in the structured vehicle, the exposure value to a counterparty must be measured for each tranche within the structured vehicle assuming a pro rata distribution of losses amongst investors in a single tranche. To measure the exposure value in the underlying assets, the ADI must:
- identify the lower of the value of the tranche in which an ADI has an exposure to and the nominal value of each underlying asset included in the underlying portfolio of assets; and
- apply the pro rata share of the ADI’s exposure in the tranche to the value determined in paragraph 26(a) of this Attachment.
The resulting exposure value to each underlying asset is capped at the nominal value of the underlying asset.
- When an ADI has not applied the look-through requirements for an exposure to a structured vehicle it must assess the risk concentrations of the underlying assets of the structured vehicle on an annual basis.
- An ADI must identify third parties which contribute to an additional risk factor inherent in the structured vehicle itself rather than in the assets held by the vehicle. Third parties may include, but are not limited to, fund managers, originators, liquidity providers and credit protection providers. This applies regardless of whether an ADI has applied the look-through requirements in paragraphs 23 to 27 of this Attachment.
- An ADI must treat structured vehicles as a group of connected counterparties if they share one or more common additional risk factors that pose material risks to the ADI’s exposures to these structured vehicles.
- Where an ADI identifies more than one third party as a driver of a particular additional risk factor, the ADI must assign the exposure in the structured vehicles to each of the third parties if they pose material risks to the structured vehicles.
- An ADI must add its exposures to a structured vehicle associated with a third party deemed to contribute to an additional risk factor to other exposures that the ADI has to that third party if:
- there is a material risk to the exposures in the structured vehicle if the third party were to default on a direct exposure to the ADI; or
- there is a material risk to a direct exposure to that third party if the third party were to default in its role in the structured vehicles.
- An ADI must measure its exposure to non-qualifying CCPs as the sum of clearing exposures (determined in accordance with paragraph 33 of this Attachment) and non-clearing exposures (determined in accordance with paragraph 35 of this Attachment). This aggregate exposure is subject to the large exposure limits in paragraph 30 of this Prudential Standard.
- Clearing exposures to a non-qualifying CCP are calculated as:
- for trade exposures, the exposure measure corresponding to trading book exposure value determined in accordance with APS 112;
- for non-segregated initial margin, the nominal amount of initial margin posted;
- for pre-funded default fund contributions, the funded contribution; and
- for equity stakes, the nominal amount.
Clearing exposures to a non-qualifying CCP in relation to segregated initial margin and unfunded default fund contributions are excluded.
- When an ADI acts as a clearing member to a CCP or is a client of a clearing member, the counterparty to which exposures are assigned must be determined in accordance with APS 180.
- Non-clearing exposures to a non-qualifying CCP are all exposures to a non-qualifying CCP not directly related to the provision of clearing services (e.g. funding facilities, credit facilities, and guarantees).