CHAPTER 3

Positions in the trading book shall be either free of restrictions on their tradability or able to be hedged. Trading intent shall be evidenced on the basis of the strategies, policies and procedures set up by the institution to manage the position or portfolio in accordance with Article 103. Institutions shall establish and maintain systems and controls to manage their trading book in accordance with Articles 104 and 105. Institutions may include internal hedges in the calculation of capital requirements for position risk provided that they are held with trading intent and that the requirements of Articles 103 to 106 are met. In managing its positions or sets of positions in the trading book the institution shall comply with all of the following requirements: the institution shall have in place a clearly documented trading strategy for the position/instrument or portfolios, approved by senior management, which shall include the expected holding period; the institution shall have in place clearly defined policies and procedures for the active management of positions entered into on a trading desk. Those policies and procedures shall include the following: which positions may be entered into by which trading desk; position limits are set and monitored for appropriateness; dealers have the autonomy to enter into and manage the position within agreed limits and according to the approved strategy; positions are reported to senior management as an integral part of the institution's risk management process; positions are actively monitored with reference to market information sources and an assessment made of the marketability or hedge-ability of the position or its component risks, including the assessment, the quality and availability of market inputs to the valuation process, level of market turnover, sizes of positions traded in the market; active anti fraud procedures and controls. the institution shall have in place clearly defined policies and procedures to monitor the positions against the institution's trading strategy including the monitoring of turnover and positions for which the originally intended holding period has been exceeded. Institutions shall have in place clearly defined policies and procedures for determining which position to include in the trading book for the purposes of calculating their capital requirements, in accordance with the requirements set out in Article 102 and the definition of trading book in accordance with point (86) of Article 4(1), taking into account the institution's risk management capabilities and practices. The institution shall fully document its compliance with these policies and procedures and shall subject them to periodic internal audit. Institutions shall have in place clearly defined policies and procedures for the overall management of the trading book. These policies and procedures shall at least address: the activities the institution considers to be trading and as constituting part of the trading book for own funds requirement purposes; the extent to which a position can be marked-to-market daily by reference to an active, liquid two-way market; for positions that are marked-to-model, the extent to which the institution can: identify all material risks of the position; hedge all material risks of the position with instruments for which an active, liquid two-way market exists; derive reliable estimates for the key assumptions and parameters used in the model; the extent to which the institution can, and is required to, generate valuations for the position that can be validated externally in a consistent manner; the extent to which legal restrictions or other operational requirements would impede the institution's ability to effect a liquidation or hedge of the position in the short term; the extent to which the institution can, and is required to, actively manage the risks of positions within its trading operation; the extent to which the institution may transfer risk or positions between the non-trading and trading books and the criteria for such transfers. All trading book positions shall be subject to the standards for prudent valuation specified in this Article. Institutions shall in particular ensure that the prudent valuation of their trading book positions achieves an appropriate degree of certainty having regard to the dynamic nature of trading book positions, the demands of prudential soundness and the mode of operation and purpose of capital requirements in respect of trading book positions. Institutions shall establish and maintain systems and controls sufficient to provide prudent and reliable valuation estimates. Those systems and controls shall include at least the following elements: documented policies and procedures for the process of valuation, including clearly defined responsibilities of the various areas involved in the determination of the valuation, sources of market information and review of their appropriateness, guidelines for the use of unobservable inputs reflecting the institution's assumptions of what market participants would use in pricing the position, frequency of independent valuation, timing of closing prices, procedures for adjusting valuations, month end and ad-hoc verification procedures; reporting lines for the department accountable for the valuation process that are clear and independent of the front office. The reporting line shall ultimately be to the management body. Institutions shall revalue trading book positions at least daily. Institutions shall mark their positions to market whenever possible, including when applying trading book capital treatment. When marking to market, an institution shall use the more prudent side of bid and offer unless the institution can close out at mid market. Where institutions make use of this derogation, they shall every six months inform their competent authorities of the positions concerned and furnish evidence that they can close out at mid-market. Where marking to market is not possible, institutions shall conservatively mark to model their positions and portfolios, including when calculating own funds requirements for positions in the trading book. Institutions shall comply with the following requirements when marking to model: senior management shall be aware of the elements of the trading book or of other fair-valued positions which are subject to mark to model and shall understand the materiality of the uncertainty thereby created in the reporting of the risk/performance of the business; institutions shall source market inputs, where possible, in line with market prices, and shall assess the appropriateness of the market inputs of the particular position being valued and the parameters of the model on a frequent basis; where available, institutions shall use valuation methodologies which are accepted market practice for particular financial instruments or commodities; where the model is developed by the institution itself, it shall be based on appropriate assumptions, which have been assessed and challenged by suitably qualified parties independent of the development process; institutions shall have in place formal change control procedures and shall hold a secure copy of the model and use it periodically to check valuations; risk management shall be aware of the weaknesses of the models used and how best to reflect those in the valuation output; and institutions' models shall be subject to periodic review to determine the accuracy of their performance, which shall include assessing the continued appropriateness of assumptions, analysis of profit and loss versus risk factors, and comparison of actual close out values to model outputs. For the purposes of point (d), the model shall be developed or approved independently of the trading desk and shall be independently tested, including validation of the mathematics, assumptions and software implementation. Institutions shall perform independent price verification in addition to daily marking to market or marking to model. Verification of market prices and model inputs shall be performed by a person or unit independent from persons or units that benefit from the trading book, at least monthly, or more frequently depending on the nature of the market or trading activity. Where independent pricing sources are not available or pricing sources are more subjective, prudent measures such as valuation adjustments may be appropriate. Institutions shall establish and maintain procedures for considering valuation adjustments. Institutions shall formally consider the following valuation adjustments: unearned credit spreads, close-out costs, operational risks, market price uncertainty, early termination, investing and funding costs, future administrative costs and, where relevant, model risk. Institutions shall establish and maintain procedures for calculating an adjustment to the current valuation of any less liquid positions, which can in particular arise from market events or institution-related situations such as concentrated positions and/or positions for which the originally intended holding period has been exceeded. Institutions shall, where necessary, make such adjustments in addition to any changes to the value of the position required for financial reporting purposes and shall design such adjustments to reflect the illiquidity of the position. Under those procedures, institutions shall consider several factors when determining whether a valuation adjustment is necessary for less liquid positions. Those factors include the following: the amount of time it would take to hedge out the position or the risks within the position; the volatility and average of bid/offer spreads; the availability of market quotes (number and identity of market makers) and the volatility and average of trading volumes including trading volumes during periods of market stress; market concentrations; the ageing of positions; the extent to which valuation relies on marking-to-model; the impact of other model risks. When using third party valuations or marking to model, institutions shall consider whether to apply a valuation adjustment. In addition, institutions shall consider the need for establishing adjustments for less liquid positions and on an ongoing basis review their continued suitability. Institutions shall also explicitly assess the need for valuation adjustments relating to the uncertainty of parameter inputs used by models. With regard to complex products, including securitisation exposures and n-th-to-default credit derivatives, institutions shall explicitly assess the need for valuation adjustments to reflect the model risk associated with using a possibly incorrect valuation methodology and the model risk associated with using unobservable (and possibly incorrect) calibration parameters in the valuation model. EBA shall develop draft regulatory technical standards to specify the conditions according to which the requirements of Article 105 shall be applied for the purposes of paragraph 1 of this Article. EBA shall submit those draft regulatory technical standards to the Commission by 1 February 2015. Power is delegated to the Commission to adopt the regulatory technical standards referred to in the first subparagraph in accordance with Articles 10 to 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010. An internal hedge shall in particular meet the following requirements: it shall not be primarily intended to avoid or reduce own funds requirements; it shall be properly documented and subject to particular internal approval and audit procedures; it shall be dealt with at market conditions; the market risk that is generated by the internal hedge shall be dynamically managed in the trading book within the authorised limits; it shall be carefully monitored. Monitoring shall be ensured by adequate procedures. The requirements of paragraph 1 apply without prejudice to the requirements applicable to the hedged position in the non-trading book. By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2, when an institution hedges a non-trading book credit risk exposure or counterparty risk exposure using a credit derivative booked in its trading book using an internal hedge, the non-trading book exposure or counterparty risk exposure shall not be deemed to be hedged for the purposes of calculating risk weighted exposure amounts unless the institution purchases from an eligible third party protection provider a corresponding credit derivative meeting the requirements for unfunded credit protection in the non-trading book. Without prejudice to point (h) of Article 299(2), where such third party protection is purchased and recognised as a hedge of a non-trading book exposure for the purposes of calculating capital requirements, neither the internal nor external credit derivative hedge shall be included in the trading book for the purposes of calculating capital requirements.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.