The European Central Bank (ECB) has published amendments to its guidelines on the implementation of monetary policy in the Eurosystem, which will be effective from 30 November 2026. The amendments include several key changes:
- Introduction of a second-best rating for private sector assets used as collateral, assessed by external credit assessment institutions, as announced on 21 February 2025. This applies to assets such as unsecured bank bonds, covered bank bonds, and assets issued by non-financial corporations and non-euro area public sector entities. First-best ratings will continue to apply for euro area public sector assets. Further details are available in the ECB FAQs.
- Update of the haircut schedule following the review conducted on 17 November 2025, including refined haircuts for own-used or retained assets and increased granularity based on the type of amortisation of credit claims.
- Temporary eligibility of credit claims benefiting from COVID-19-related public sector guarantees will end on 31 December 2026, as announced on 25 June 2026.
- Amendments made on 24 July 2026 allocate, under certain conditions, the financial subsidiaries of non-financial corporate issuer groups to the same haircut category as their parent non-financial corporations. These entities will be assigned to haircut category III and will be subject to the climate factor under the Eurosystem collateral framework, aligning their treatment with that of their parent companies.
Guidelines ECB/2026/26 and ECB/2026/27 are available in English on the ECB’s website and will be published in all 24 official EU languages in the Official Journal of the European Union.
For media inquiries, contact Lena-Sophie Demuth at +49 162 2952316.
