EU securitisation reform agreed

Securitisation is the operation by which a lender pools loans and sells the right to their repayments to investors as securities, in slices that absorb losses in a set order. The reform changes how much capital banks hold against these securities and what investors check before buying them, with the stated aim to revive and simplify the EU market (Council press release, 21 October 2026 (external site)).

The reform is still a proposal. On 21 October 2026 Council and Parliament reached a provisional political agreement, and formal approval by both institutions is the next step (Council press release (external site)).

Capital: low-risk securitisations get materially lower capital requirements, while riskier positions keep higher ones (Council press release (external site)). This part amends the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), the EU rulebook on bank capital (COM(2025) 825 (external site)).

As an example, a bank holding a EUR 100 million position with a risk weight of 15 percent counts EUR 15 million of risk-weighted assets; a lower risk weight reduces the capital held against it. The figures are illustrative, and the agreed calibration is in the final text (COM(2025) 825 (external site)).

Investors: the Commission proposal removes some verification duties for investors where the seller is established and supervised in the EU (COM(2025) 826 (external site)).

Label: targeted changes to STS securitisation (simple, transparent and standardised) support cross-border integration and let insurers and reinsurers take part in synthetic securitisation, where risk moves through a guarantee or derivative instead of a sale of loans (Council press release (external site)). The proposal also lowers from 100 percent to 70 percent the share of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) needed for an STS securitisation of SME loans (COM(2025) 826 (external site)).

The capital rules apply to banks. The due diligence rules apply to institutional investors such as insurers and asset managers (COM(2025) 826 (external site)).

• Capital Reporting Analyst: recalculates risk-weighted amounts for securitisation positions under the new calibration.
• Regulatory Reporting Analyst: updates the securitisation figures in supervisory capital reports.
• Credit Risk Analyst: assesses the underlying loan pools that drive the capital treatment.
• ALM Analyst: weighs securitisation as a funding source against its new capital cost.
• Portfolio Analyst: runs investor due diligence on securitisation positions under the revised checks.
• Investment Risk Analyst: assesses the risk of each securitisation position held in portfolios.

The Commission published the two proposals on 17 June 2025 (COM(2025) 826 (external site)). The Council agreed its negotiating position on 19 December 2025 (Council press release, 19 December 2025 (external site)).

The provisional agreement of 21 October 2026 is the only confirmed date. Formal adoption, publication in the Official Journal and the dates of application are not yet set (Council press release (external site)).

The current framework is the Securitisation Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2017/2402, which sets due diligence, transparency and STS rules, with the bank capital treatment in the CRR (COM(2025) 826 (external site)).

The Commission's evaluation found the CRR capital requirements for securitisation insufficiently risk sensitive, and the proposal aligns them more closely with the underlying risks (COM(2025) 825 (external site)).