Approval procedures

Credit institutions require a special approval by the European Central Bank or the Financial Market Authority for material changes to their structure (such as mergers, any changes in their legal form, the acquisition of a qualifying holding) or for certain simplifications (such as waivers or exemptions from regulatory standards. A detailed description can be found in the section on Banking Union about competence within the banking union.

This page explains about the types of authorisations required in accordance with the Austrian Banking Act (BWG – Bankwesengesetz) and in accordance with the Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR ).

The Banking Act stipulates a total of eight circumstances for which special approval is required. They are specified in Article 21 para. 1 BWG:

  • No. 1: any merger or amalgamation of credit institutions or of CRR -credit institutions authorised in a Member State or a third country where at least one of the credit institutions or CRR -credit institutions involved is deemed to be a credit institution pursuant to Article 1 para. 1 BWG ;
  • No. 2: any case in which the limits of 10% (qualifying holding), 20%, 33% and 50% of the voting rights or capital of a credit institution or CRR -credit institution based in a third country are reached, exceeded or not reached;
  • No. 3: any change in the legal form of a credit institution;
  • No. 5: the establishment of branches in a third country;
  • No. 6: for the demerger of credit institutions pursuant to Article 1 of the Joint-Stock Company Demergers Act (SpaltG – Bundesgesetz über die Spaltung von Kapitalgesellschaften) – in German only;
  • No. 7: any merger or amalgamation of credit institutions with non-banks, except for subsidiary undertakings pursuant to Article 59 para. 3 BWG ;
  • No. 8: any expansion of the purpose of business to include activities related to insurance mediation pursuant to Article 137 of the Commercial Code of 1994 (GewO 1994 – Gewerbeordnung 1994) – in German only;
  • No. 9. any expansion of the purpose of business by credit institutions authorised in Austria to include the activity of submitting bids as defined in Article 3(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1031/2010 on behalf of clients.

In addition to the special circumstances requiring approval under national law those set out in the Capital Requirements Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (CRR ) also apply. Additional information is available about selected approvals in the CRR :

Note about National Discretions in the CRR

For approvals that are granted by the European Central Bank, with regard to national discretions Regulation (EU) 2016/445 on the exercise of options and discretions available in Union law is relevant. This regulation will to a large extent be applied from 01.10.2016 to the supervision of significant credit institutions. As a European regulation it enjoys precedence of application over national law. In the case that such provisions contradict those contained in the CRR Supplementary Regulation (CRR-BV; CRR-Begleitverordnung) issued by the FMA , the provisions contained in Regulation (EU) 2016/445 shall therefore take precedence for significant institutions domiciled in Austria. It specified the exercising of a range of regulatory discretions for significant credit institutions.

Further information

Related topics

Banking Union