SRB statement on European Court judgments annulling 2016 ex-ante contributions decisions for three banks

The Single Resolution Board (SRB) takes note of yesterday’s judgments of the General Court of the European Union annulling the SRB’s decisions on the 2016 ex-ante contributions of Banco Cooperativo Español, Portigon, and Hypo Vorarlberg Bank to the Single Resolution Fund.

The judgments only relate to the ex-ante contributions of these three institutions for 2016. There will be no impact on the build-up of the Single Resolution Fund. The contributions of these entities represent a very small percentage of the overall ex-ante contributions collected from more than 3,700 institutions in 2016.

In the judgments, the Court identified certain flaws related to procedural elements of the decision-making process in 2016, when the SRB was in its start-up phase. It made no comment on the calculation methodology, nor on the validity of the legal framework for calculating the ex-ante contributions.

The SRB will carefully assess the content of the judgments in order to determine the next steps, which will be taken in cooperation with the relevant National Resolution Authorities (NRAs). The banks remain under the obligation to pay ex-ante contributions for 2016.