EBA streamlines its Guidelines on connected clients to align with new EU legislation

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has adopted a Decision partially deleting sections of its Guidelines on connected clients following the application of new EU legislation. 

The update reflects the entry into force of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1728, which introduces binding Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying the circumstances in which institutions must identify groups of connected clients.

As certain provisions are now directly covered by EU law, the EBA removed overlapping sections from its Guidelines to avoid duplication and support a more consistent prudential framework across the EU.

The changes are particularly relevant for the assessment of:

• control relationships,
• economic dependency,
• combined control and dependency relationships,
• large exposure framework compliance under the CRR.

The revised framework aims to improve supervisory consistency and provide greater legal clarity for institutions when identifying groups of connected clients.

The consolidated version of the updated Guidelines has been published on the EBA website.