1. Level 1 assets shall only include assets falling under one or more of the following categories and meeting in each case the eligibility criteria laid down herein:
(a)
coins and banknotes;
(b)
the following exposures to central banks:
(i)
assets representing claims on or guaranteed by the European Central Bank (ECB) or a Member State's central bank;
(ii)
assets representing claims on or guaranteed by central banks of third countries, provided that exposures to the central bank or its central government are assigned a credit assessment by a nominated external credit assessment institution (ECAI) which is at least credit quality step 1 in accordance with Article 114(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(iii)
reserves held by the credit institution in a central bank referred to in points (i) and (ii) provided that the credit institution is permitted to withdraw such reserves at any time during stress periods and the conditions for such withdrawal have been specified in an agreement between the relevant competent authority and the ECB or the central bank;
(c)
assets representing claims on or guaranteed by the following central or regional governments, local authorities or public sector entities:
(i)
the central government of a Member State;
(ii)
the central government of a third country, provided that it is assigned a credit assessment by a nominated ECAI which is at least credit quality step 1 in accordance with Article 114(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(iii)
regional governments or local authorities in a Member State, provided that they are treated as exposures to the central government of the Member State in accordance with Article 115(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(iv)
regional governments or local authorities in a third country of the type referred to in point (ii), provided that they are treated as exposures to the central government of the third country in accordance with Article 115(4) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(v)
public sector entities provided that they are treated as exposures to the central government of a Member State or to one of the regional governments or local authorities referred to in point (iii) in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 116 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(d)
assets representing claims on or guaranteed by the central government or the central bank of a third country which is not assigned a credit quality step 1 credit assessment by a nominated ECAI in accordance with Article 114(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, provided that in this case the credit institution may only recognise the asset as level 1 to cover stressed net liquidity outflows incurred in the same currency in which the asset is denominated.
Where the asset is not denominated in the domestic currency of the third country, the credit institution may only recognise the asset as level 1 up to the amount of the credit institution's stressed net liquidity outflows in that foreign currency corresponding to its operations in the jurisdiction where the liquidity risk is being taken;
(e)
assets issued by credit institutions which meet at least one of the following two requirements:
(i)
the issuer is a credit institution incorporated or established by the central government of a Member State or the regional government or local authority in a Member State, the government or local authority is under the legal obligation to protect the economic basis of the credit institution and maintain its financial viability throughout its life-time and any exposure to that regional government or local authority, as applicable, is treated as an exposure to the central government of the Member State in accordance with Article 115(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(ii)
the credit institution is a promotional lender which, for the purposes of this Article, shall be understood as any credit institution whose purpose is to advance the public policy objectives of the Union or of the central or regional government or local authority in a Member State predominantly through the provision of promotional loans on a non-competitive, not for profit basis, provided that at least 90 % of the loans that it grants are directly or indirectly guaranteed by the central or regional government or local authority and that any exposure to that regional government or local authority, as applicable, is treated as an exposure to the central government of the Member State in accordance with Article 115(2) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(f)
exposures in the form of extremely high quality covered bonds, which shall comply with all of the following requirements:
(i)
they are bonds as referred to in Article 52(4) of Directive 2009/65/EC or meet the requirements to be eligible for the treatment set out in Article 129(4) or (5) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(ii)
the exposures to institutions in the cover pool meet the conditions laid down in Article 129(1)(c) and in Article 129(1) last subparagraph of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(iii)
the credit institution investing in the covered bonds and the issuer meet the transparency requirement referred to in Article 129(7) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
(iv)
their issue size is at least EUR 500 million (or the equivalent amount in domestic currency);
(v)
the covered bonds are assigned a credit assessment by a nominated ECAI which is at least credit quality step 1 in accordance with Article 129(4) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, the equivalent credit quality step in the event of a short term credit assessment or, in the absence of a credit assessment, they are assigned a 10 % risk weight in accordance with Article 129(5) of that Regulation;
(vi)
the cover pool meets at all times an asset coverage requirement of at least 2 % in excess of the amount required to meet the claims attaching to the covered bonds;
(g)
assets representing claims on or guaranteed by the multilateral development banks and the international organisations referred to in Article 117(2) and Article 118, respectively, of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.
2. The market value of extremely high quality covered bonds referred to in paragraph 1(f) shall be subject to a haircut of at least 7 %. Except as specified in relation to shares and units in CIUs in points
(a) and
(b) of Article 15(2), no haircut shall be required on the value of the remaining level 1 assets.