Policies, consultations and updates for firms

19 December 2024: The Bank, as resolution authority, has published policy statements and statements of policy on CCP Resolution as follows:

• The Bank of England’s approach to determining commercially reasonable payments for contracts subject to a statutory tear up in CCP resolution – Policy statement
• The Bank of England’s approach to determining commercially reasonable payments for contracts subject to a statutory tear up in CCP resolution – Statement of policy
• The Bank of England’s power to direct a CCP to address impediments to resolvability – Policy statement
• The Bank of England’s power to direct a CCP to address impediments to resolvability – Statement of policy

25 November 2024: The Bank has extended the consultation closing date for its consultation on MREL from 15 January to 24 January. References to the closing date within the consultation have been updated.

15 October 2024: The Bank, as resolution authority, has published a consultation paper on amending its approach to setting MREL. The deadline for responses is 15 January 2025.

8 October 2024: The PRA has published CP12/24 – Resolution assessments: Amendments to reporting and disclosure dates. The deadline for responses is 8 November 2024.

6 August 2024: The Bank published the findings from its second assessment of the resolvability of the major eight UK banks under the Resolvability Assessment Framework. In parallel, the eight major UK banks also published their own public disclosures on their preparations for resolution.

18 July 2024: The Bank, as Resolution Authority, has published two Consultation Papers on CCP Resolution: 

• The Bank of England’s approach to determining commercially reasonable payments for contracts subject to a statutory tear up in CCP resolution. The deadline for responses is 4 October 2024. 
• The Bank of England’s power to direct a CCP to address impediments to resolvability. The deadline for responses is 18 October 2024. 

6 June 2024: As with previous general elections, the Bank will be following the Cabinet Office’s election guidance, which includes limiting communications activities until after the election. In line with this approach the Bank and PRA have chosen to delay publication of the second Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF) assessment of the major UK banks to early August 2024. 

The publication of the Bank’s assessment was due by Friday 14 June 2024 alongside firms’ own public disclosures (as required by Rule 4.1 of the Resolution Assessment Part of the PRA Rulebook). As such, we are offering a modification by consent to Rule 4.1 of the Resolution Assessment Part of the PRA Rulebook to delay the deadline for firms to publish their RAF disclosures from the second Friday in June 2024, to the second Friday in August 2024 at the latest.  

29 May 2024: As with previous general elections, the Bank will be following the Cabinet Office’s election guidance, which includes limiting communications activities until after the election. In line with this approach the Bank and PRA have chosen to delay publication of the second Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF) assessment of the major UK banks until after the election.

The publication of the Bank’s assessment was due by Friday 14 June 2024 alongside firms’ own public disclosures. The Bank and PRA will confirm the revised publication date shortly.

28 March 2024: The Bank, as Resolution Authority, has published 2024 external MRELs for all firms with a resolution entity incorporated in the UK for which an MREL above minimum capital requirements has been communicated.

11 January 2024: The Bank published a statement on enhancing the UK bank resolution regime.

15 December 2023: The Bank published a speech delivered by Dave Ramsden to the Deloitte Academy, ‘The weekend starts here’. The Bank also published an updated version of ‘The Bank of England’s approach to resolution’, first published in 2014 and previously updated in 2017. This new publication reflects policy changes following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and updates to the Bank’s resolution regime such as the Resolvability Assessment Framework.

17 October 2023: The Bank of England, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Reserve Board met to discuss central counterparty (CCP) resolution. The meeting, one of a regular series of senior-level meetings held since 2017, was used to review joint work undertaken by the agencies, including information sharing and communication arrangements to support resolution planning for US and UK CCPs.

24 July 2023: The Bank published a letter from Christopher Jackson and Robert Zammit to the CFOs of the major UK banks on firms’ preparations for the second Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF) assessment.

18 April 2023: The Bank, as Resolution Authority, has published:

• 2023 external MRELs for all firms with a resolution entity incorporated in the UK for which an MREL above minimum capital requirements has been communicated; and
• an update on work launched in December 2021 to improve depositor outcomes in the event of bank or building society insolvency.

7 March 2023: The Bank published a letter from Mel Beaman to the CFOs of the major UK banks on firms’ preparations for the second Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF) assessment.

10 June 2022: The Bank published the findings from its first assessment of the resolvability of the major eight UK firms as part of the Resolvability Assessment Framework. In parallel, the major eight UK firms also published their own public disclosures on their preparations for resolution.

8 February 2022: The Bank published a joint readout of principals’ meeting of UK and US authorities regarding Central Counterparty Resolution.

14 December 2021: The Bank, as Resolution Authority, has published firm-specific interim and end-state MREL disclosures for all firms for which the Bank has communicated an MREL above capital requirements.

3 December 2021: The Bank, as Resolution Authority, has published a:

• Policy Statement and revised version of the Statement of Policy on the Bank’s approach to setting a minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL);
• new webpage containing previous, current and future versions of the Statement of Policy; and
• statement seeking ideas to support work to improve depositor outcomes in the event of bank or building society insolvency.

25 November 2021: Today we published CP21/21 ‘Operational Resilience and Operational Continuity in Resolution: CRR firms, Solvency II firms, and Financial Holding Companies (for Operational Resilience)’, relevant to UK banks, building societies, PRA-designated investment firms, financial holding companies, mixed financial holding companies, UK Solvency II firms, and the Society of Lloyd’s and its managing agents. This consultation closes on Friday 14 January 2022.  

8 October 2021: Today we published CP20/21 ‘Trading activity wind-down’, to all PRA-authorised UK banks, their qualifying parent undertakings and PRA-designated investment firms that are engaged in trading activities, and relevant third country branches. This CP is also relevant to policymakers and practitioners that would expect to be involved in a firm’s resolution. This consultation closes on Friday 21 January 2022.

25 June 2021: The Bank of England published a joint readout of principals’ meeting of UK and US authorities regarding Central Counterparty Resolution.

22 July 2021: July 2021 resolution publications

28 May 2021: The Bank and the PRA published updates to OCIR policy and the RAF:

• PS9/21 ‘Operational continuity in resolution: Updates to the policy’
• PS10/21 ‘Resolution assessments: Amendments to reporting and disclosure dates’
• Bank PS ‘Updates to the Bank of England’s approach to assessing resolvability’.

We have also published a new webpage listing the main policy documents related to the Resolvability Assessment Framework.

24 February 2021: We published a letter from Dave Ramsden to the CEOs of the major UK banks on firms’ Resolvability Assessment Framework preparations.

21 December 2020: The PRA published PS28/20 ‘Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive II’, which provides feedback to CP18/20 ‘Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive II’ and includes two final PRA Rules. This PS is relevant to Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) undertakings.

18 December 2020: The Bank has announced an extension for certain firms to meet their end-state deadlines for MREL and their resolvability deadlines under the Resolvability Assessment Framework (RAF). These announcements are being made in conjunction with the publication of a Discussion Paper, ‘The Bank of England’s review of its approach to setting a minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) - Discussion Paper’. 

7 December 2020: The PRA published PS25/20 ‘Simplified Obligations for recovery planning’. This PS is relevant to PRA-authorised UK banks, building societies, PRA-designated UK investment firms, and their qualifying parent undertakings (firms), to which the Recovery Plans Part of the PRA Rulebook applies. The implementation date is 7 December 2020.

28 October 2020: The Bank of England (the Bank) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are consulting on a package of proposals relating to resolution policy.

The PRA published the following Consultation Papers (CPs):

• Consultation Paper (CP) 18/20 ‘Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive II’. This CP is relevant to BRRD undertakings to which the Contractual Recognition of Bail-in and Stay in Resolution Parts of the PRA Rulebook apply.
• CP19/20 ‘Resolution assessments: Amendments to reporting and disclosure dates’. This CP is relevant to UK banks and building societies with £50 billion or more in retail deposits on an individual or consolidated basis, as at the date of their most recent annual accounts.
• CP20/20 'Operational continuity in resolution: Updates to the policy'. This CP is relevant to PRA-authorised UK banks, building societies, and PRA-designated UK investment firms currently in scope of, or likely to come into scope of, the Operational Continuity Part of the PRA Rulebook.

The Bank published the CP, ‘Updates to the Bank of England’s approach to assessing resolvability’. This is related to CP19/20 and CP20/20, and is relevant to firms for which: (i) the Bank, as home resolution authority, has notified that their preferred resolution strategy is bail-in or partial-transfer; or (ii) the Bank has notified, as host resolution authority, that they are a ‘material subsidiary’ of an overseas-based banking group for the purposes of setting internal minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).

CP18/20 closes on Monday 30 November 2020. CP19/20, CP20/20, and the Bank CP close on Sunday 31 January 2021.

7 May 2020 – We published a statement on resolution measures and Covid-19.

10 June 2019 - We published a notice on revisions to EU legislation (CRR II).