Circular Letter No. CC/2021/00000057

Circular Letter No. CC/2021/00000057 Sent to: Credit Institutions. Mod. 40000375/T – 01/14 Subject: Revision of the EBA Guidelines on internal governance (EBA/GL/2021/05)

The European Banking Authority (hereinafter referred to as EBA) published on 2 July 2021 the document entitled “Guidelines on internal governance under Directive 2013/36/EU” (EBA/GL/2021/05), addressed to competent authorities, credit institutions and systemic investment firms, which will enter into force on 31 December 2021 and will revoke the guidelines published on 26 September 2017 (EBA/GL/2017/11).

These Guidelines can be consulted on the EBA’s institutional website(1) and result from the revision conducted by the EBA of the current guidelines on this matter, following the amendments introduced into Directive (EU) 2013/336 of 26 June 2013 by Directive (EU) 2019/878 of 20 May 2019 on internal governance. Various guidelines and recommendations were also revised or introduced to align with other relevant European Union legislation, such as Directive (EU) 2015/849 of 20 May 2015.

The Portuguese translation of the aforementioned Guidelines has been available since 5 October 2021(2), so that institutions within their scope of application should, from now on, adopt the necessary measures to implement the new requirements at the level of their internal governance and risk management systems in order to comply with them from 31 December 2021.

The Bank of Portugal also informs that Notice No. 3/2020 of the Bank of Portugal had already anticipated most of the changes introduced in the Guidelines now published, particularly those concerning conflicts of interest and related parties. In this regard, the Bank of Portugal wishes to emphasize the importance of institutions giving adequate compliance with the guidelines contained in the document in question, which must therefore be followed and applied in the context of current legislation and regulation and, in particular, function as a complement not only to the provisions contained in the General Regime of Credit Institutions and Financial Companies but also to Notice No. 3/2020 of the Bank of Portugal regarding the matters in question.

(1) https://www.eba.europa.eu/sites/default/documents/files/document_library/Publications/Guidelines/2021/1016721/Final%20report%20on%20Guidelines%20on%20internal%20governance%20under%20CRD.pdf (2) https://www.eba.europa.eu/sites/default/documents/files/document_library/Publications/Guidelines/2021/EBA-GL-2021-05%20Guidelines%20on%20internal%20governance/translations/1021306/GL%20on%20internal%20governance%20under%20CRD_PT.pdf