Regulation

Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD)

The BRRD is the substantive rulebook of European resolution. It obliges every bank to maintain a recovery plan and every authority a resolution plan, defines the conditions for resolution, and creates the four resolution tools — sale of business, bridge institution, asset separation and bail-in. It applies across the whole EU and, through national transposition, governs how any European bank fails.

Art. 32

Conditions for resolution (FOLTF, no private alternative, public interest)

Art. 34

No creditor worse off than in insolvency (NCWO)

Arts. 43–44

The bail-in tool and its scope

Art. 45

MREL — minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities

Art. 59

Write-down and conversion of capital instruments

Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (SRMR)

The SRMR builds the institutional machinery of the banking union: it establishes the Single Resolution Board, centralises resolution decisions for significant and cross-border banks, and creates the Single Resolution Fund. Where the BRRD says what can be done, the SRMR says who decides — the SRB adopts the scheme, the Commission endorses it, and national authorities execute it.

Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR) — TLAC

Since the 2019 banking package the CRR carries the FSB’s TLAC standard into directly applicable EU law: Article 92a sets the requirement for global systemically important institutions, and Articles 72a–72l define which liabilities are eligible — the legal test behind the instrument classifications used across this site.

Art. 92a

TLAC requirement for G-SIIs

Arts. 72a–72l

Eligible liabilities items and deductions

2019 banking package (BRRD II · SRMR II · CRR II)

The 2019 review aligned the EU framework with TLAC and recalibrated MREL: requirements are now expressed against risk-weighted assets and leverage exposure, subordination expectations are explicit, and authorities gained the power to suspend payments (moratorium) at the point of failure. Most MREL decisions the SRB publishes today are set under this package.

Creditor hierarchy directive

This short amendment to the BRRD created the senior non-preferred class: ordinary unsecured debt that ranks below other senior liabilities but above subordinated instruments. It gave banks across the EU a harmonised layer for issuing MREL-eligible senior debt, and is the reason the SNP class exists in the instruments explorer.

Crisis management and deposit insurance (CMDI) review

The pending CMDI reform would widen the public-interest test so that resolution — rather than national insolvency — becomes the default for mid-sized banks, and would make deposit guarantee scheme funds easier to use in resolution. The proposal is under negotiation between the Parliament and the Council; this page will track the outcome.