2026-03-30
The Governor of the Bank of France issued Decision No. 2026-01 to amend the framework for monetary policy and intraday credit, introducing new definitions for climate-related risk factors and residual value risks. The decision updates eligibility criteria for negotiable assets, including specific requirements for coupon structures, currency denomination, and the electronic format of international debt securities. It also establishes stricter eligibility standards and data reporting obligations for asset-backed securities, particularly those with a credit assessment of level 3.
Decision No. 2026-01 of 25 March 2026 amending Decision No. 2015-01 of 22 April 2015 on the implementation of the monetary policy and intraday credit of the Bank of France
THE GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF FRANCE
Having regard to:
DECIDES
Article 1 Modifications
The Governor’s Decision of the Bank of France No. 2015-01 of 22 April 2015 on the implementation of the monetary policy and intraday credit of the Bank of France (hereinafter "the Decision") is amended as follows:
"82 bis) 'residual value risk', the risk associated with a payment made in respect of an asset generating cash flows in any of the following cases: a) the payment is structured in such a way as to depend systematically on the sale or refinancing of the assets in question, without it being possible to recourse to the debtor to cover any potential shortfall between the proceeds from the sale of the assets and the payments due in respect of the asset generating cash flows, or any potential shortfall in those due payments resulting from a failure to fully or partially refinance the assets; b) the debtor has the option, inter alia, to deliver the assets in full settlement of its payment obligations, but does not have the obligation to cover any potential shortfall between the proceeds from the sale of the assets and the payments due in respect of the asset generating cash flows, or any potential deficit in those scheduled payments resulting from the failure to fully or partially refinance the assets; c) in either of the cases referred to in points (a) or (b), regardless of the existence of any repurchase obligation, guarantee or any other obligation incumbent on a third party or a party to the transaction to make the payment due or to cover any potential shortfall between the proceeds from the sale of the assets and the payments due in respect of the asset generating cash flows, or any potential shortfall in those due payments resulting from a failure to fully or partially refinance the assets;"; m) in point 101), points (c) and (d) are deleted; n) in point 102), point (e) is deleted;
In Article 10, paragraph 5 is replaced by the following text: "5. Temporary sale operations intended to withdraw liquidity are based on assets provided by the Eurosystem. The eligibility criteria for these assets are identical to those applied to eligible assets used in temporary sale operations intended to provide liquidity, in accordance with Part Four. No haircut and no climate factor are applied in temporary sale operations intended to withdraw liquidity."
Article 62 is amended as follows: a) in paragraph 1, point (b) is replaced by the following text: "(b) an unconditional principal that is uniformly indexed to a single domestic inflation index serving as the reference rate for debt securities denominated in euros, sterling, Japanese yen or US dollars. Uniform indexing means the parity compensation of inflation recorded in the domestic inflation index serving as the reference rate (allowing, however, for positive floors and/or caps)."; b) paragraph 2 is replaced by the following text: "2. Debt securities that comply with paragraph 1(b) and whose coupon structure is as defined in Article 63(1)(b bis) are equipped with coupons indexed to the same domestic inflation index serving as the reference rate as the principal."
In Article 63, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following text: "1. In order to be eligible, debt securities must exhibit one of the following coupon structures until their final repayment: a) fixed coupons, zero coupons or multi-step coupons with a predefined schedule and coupon values; b) variable coupons not indexed to an inflation index serving as a reference rate and which exhibit the following structure: coupon rate = (reference rate * l) ± x, with f ≤ coupon rate ≤ c, where: i) in the case of debt securities denominated in euros, the reference rate is only one of the following rates at any given time: — a euro money market rate whose use is authorised in the Union in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (), in particular the Euro Short-Term Rate (€STR) (including the daily or average compounded €STR), the EURIBOR or other similar indices; for the first or last coupon, the reference rate may be a linear interpolation between two tenors of the same euro money market rate, for example a linear interpolation between two different tenors of the EURIBOR; — a constant maturity swap rate, in particular CMS indices, EIISDA, EUSA; — the yield of a euro area government bond or an index of several euro area government bonds with a maturity of one year or less; i bis) in the case of debt securities denominated in sterling, yen or US dollars, the reference rate is only one of the following rates at any given time: — a single money market rate whose use is authorised in the Union in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 in the currency in which they are denominated, — any other interest rate benchmark denominated in an acceptable currency, as decided by the Governing Council. ii) f (floor), c (cap), l (leverage/reverse leverage) and x (margin) are, where applicable, numbers that are either predefined at issuance, or which can only vary over time according to a trajectory predefined at issuance, when l is greater than zero throughout the life of the asset; b bis) variable coupons indexed to a domestic inflation index serving as the reference rate for the currency of denomination concerned, namely the euro, sterling, yen or US dollar, provided that: i) the fixed component of the coupon not adjusted for inflation and, where applicable, other margins that are applicable by addition or subtraction, are fixed or can only vary over time according to a trajectory predefined at issuance; ii) the inflation compensation is uniformly indexed to a single domestic inflation index serving as the reference rate, with the exception of positive floors and caps and cases where the inflation compensation is calculated by reference to a maximum price index level reached for recent coupon payment dates during episodes of deflation recorded (as in the case of Italian multi-year Treasury bonds Buoni del Tesoro Poliennali (BTP) Italia); iii) the floors and caps, where applicable, are numbers that are either predefined at issuance, or which can only vary over time according to a trajectory predefined at issuance; iv) such variable coupons do not contain any other complex component; c) multi-step or variable coupons with levels linked to Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLBs), provided that: i) compliance with the SLBs, by the issuer or any company belonging to the same group as the issuer of the obligation linked to sustainable development objectives, is subject to verification by an independent third party in accordance with the conditions of the debt security; and that ii) the event triggering the increase in the coupon and/or the payment linked to this increase has not been cancelled or left unimplemented by the issuer or by other means. () Regulation (EU) 2016/1011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on indices used as benchmarks in the context of financial instruments and financial contracts or for measuring the performance of investment funds and amending Directives 2008/48/EC and 2014/17/EU and Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (OJ L 171, 29.6.2016, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/1011/oj).";
Article 65 is replaced by the following text: "Article 65 Currency of denomination of negotiable assets
In order to be eligible, debt securities are denominated in one of the following currencies: the euro, one of the former currencies of Member States whose currency is the euro, sterling, yen or US dollars."
Article 66 is amended as follows: a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following text: "1. In order to be eligible, debt securities denominated in euros are issued in the EEA, and those denominated in sterling, yen or US dollars are issued in the euro area, in both cases with a CSD operating i) an eligible securities settlement system or ii) a securities settlement system with an eligible link to an eligible securities settlement system." b) paragraph 3 is deleted;
The following Article 66 bis is inserted: "Article 66 bis Issuance format of certain negotiable assets
The following eligibility criteria apply only to international debt securities issued via ICSDs, in the form of global certificates and represented by a physical certificate (paper) or by an electronic copy (digital) of a paper global certificate. a) When these instruments are represented by a bearer global certificate, they are issued in the form of new global notes (NGN) and deposited with a common safekeeper, which is an ICSD or a CSD operating i) an eligible securities settlement system or ii) a securities settlement system with an eligible link to an eligible securities settlement system. This condition does not apply to international debt securities represented by a bearer global certificate issued in the form of classical global notes before 1 January 2007, nor to continuous fungible issuances of these certificates with the same ISIN number, regardless of the date of the continuous issuance. b) When these instruments are issued in the form of registered global certificates, they are issued within the new structure for the custody of international debt securities. By way of derogation, this provision does not apply to international debt securities issued in the form of registered global certificates before 1 October 2010.
International debt securities in the form of individual certificates that are represented by a physical individual certificate (paper) are not eligible, unless they were issued in this form before 1 October 2010.
With regard to international debt instruments issued via ICSDs in fully dematerialised form, the Eurosystem reserves the right to verify that these instruments do not generate significant risks that could have an impact on the rights of the Eurosystem as holder of collateral and are validly constituted in accordance with applicable law, regardless of the technology used for their issuance."
Article 70 is amended as follows: a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following text: "1. In order to be eligible, debt securities are issued by an issuer established in the EEA or in a G10 country not belonging to the EEA, subject to the exceptions set out in this Article, paragraphs 3 bis to 7, and in Article 81 bis, paragraph 4. For negotiable assets coming from more than one issuer, this requirement applies to each issuer." b) the following paragraph 7 is added: "7. For debt securities denominated in sterling, yen or US dollars, the issuer is established in the EEA."
Article 72 is replaced by the following text: "Article 72 Eligibility criteria for asset-backed securities
In order to be eligible for Eurosystem credit operations, asset-backed securities whose credit assessment corresponds to at least credit quality step 2 on the Eurosystem Harmonised Scale of Credit Ratings fulfil a) the general eligibility criteria concerning all types of negotiable assets set out in Section 1, with the exception of the requirements defined in Article 62 regarding the principal, and b) the specific eligibility criteria set out in Articles 73 to 79 bis.
In order to be eligible for Eurosystem credit operations, asset-backed securities whose credit assessment corresponds to credit quality step 3 on the Eurosystem Harmonised Scale of Credit Ratings meet the requirements set out in paragraph 1 and fulfil the additional specific eligibility criteria set out in Article 79 ter."
Article 73 is amended as follows: a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following text: "1. For asset-backed securities to be eligible, all the assets generating cash flows to which they are backed are homogeneous, that is to say, it is possible to report them according to one of the types of loan-level reporting models appearing in the implementing technical standards adopted by the Commission as referred to in Article 7(4) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402, which must cover one of the following elements: a) residential mortgage loans; b) loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); c) car loans; d) consumer credit; e) hire-purchase; f) credit card receivables." b) the following paragraph 7 is added: "7. The issuer of an asset-backed security must not be exposed to residual value risk."
Article 78 is replaced by the following text: "Article 78 Availability of loan-level data for asset-backed securities
For asset-backed securities to become or remain eligible, complete and standardised loan-level data concerning the common pool of assets generating cash flows to which the securities are backed are provided by the parties concerned in a securitisation repository in accordance with this Article. 1 bis. Loan-level data are communicated for each transaction using the corresponding models appearing in the implementing technical standards adopted by the Commission as referred to in Article 7(4) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402. The relevant model to be communicated depends on the type of asset to which the asset-backed securities are backed, in accordance with Article 73(1)(a) to (f). 1 ter. Loan-level data are reported at least quarterly, and no later than one month after a payment maturity date for the asset-backed securities concerned. For the purposes of the models referred to in paragraph 1 bis, the 'portfolio snapshot date' is the date on which an instantaneous representation of the performance of the underlying assets was recorded for the report to be communicated and the corresponding 'report submission date' does not exceed the portfolio snapshot date by more than two months. 1 quater. To ensure compliance with the requirements of paragraphs 1, 1 bis and 1 ter, automatic checks on the consistency and accuracy of reports are carried out for all loan-level data, whether new or updated, for each transaction, by the loan-level data reference."
The following Article 79 ter is inserted: "Article 79 ter Additional eligibility criteria for asset-backed securities whose credit assessment corresponds to credit quality step 3
In order to be eligible, asset-backed securities whose credit assessment corresponds to credit quality step 3 on the Eurosystem Harmonised Scale of Credit Ratings fulfil the following additional specific eligibility criteria: a) the common pool of assets generating cash flows to which the securities are backed does not contain, at the time of issuance of the asset-backed securities or when loans are subsequently added to the common pool – for example on the occasion of a substitution or replacement of the assets generating cash flows – loans whose interest or principal payment has been in arrears for more than ninety days and for which the debtor is in default within the meaning of Article 178 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, or for which there are good grounds to doubt that the payment of these interest or principal will be made in full; b) the pool co