20 May 2020 This publication provides a high level summary of the targeted measures taken in the United Kingdom and selected European jurisdictions, designed to support businesses and provide relief from the impact of COVID-19. This information has been put together with the assistance of Wolf Theiss for Austria, Stibbe for Benelux, Kromann Reumert for Denmark, Arthur Cox for Ireland, Gide Loyrette Nouel for France, Noerr for Germany, Gianni Origoni, Grippo, Capelli & Partners for Italy, BAHR for Norway, Cuatrecasas for Portugal and Spain, Roschier for Finland and Sweden, Bär & Karrer AG for Switzerland. We would hereby like to thank them very much for their assistance. Ropes & Gray is maintaining a Coronavirus resource centre at www.ropesgray.com/en/coronavirus which contains information in relation to multiple geographies and practices with our UK related resources here. JURISDICTION PAGE EU LEVEL ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2 UNITED KINGDOM ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 IRELAND ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 BENELUX REGION ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 FRANCE ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 GERMANY ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 38 NORDIC REGION ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 45 SOUTHERN EUROPEAN REGION ............................................................................................................................................................................ 67 AUSTRIA ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 78 SWITZERLAND ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 86 EU LEVEL Provider Banks Scheme and high level summary Other comments and related links European Yes Temporary capital and liquidity buffers and operational relief in reaction to Banks are expected to Central Bank coronavirus use the measures to (“ECB”) support the economy, and The ECB has activated a number of measures to ensure that its directly have been asked not to supervised banks can fulfil their role in funding corporates and households to pay dividends for the alleviate the impact of COVID-19. financial years 2019-2020 The ECB will allow banks to operate temporarily below the level of capital or buy back shares during defined by the Pillar 2 Guidance (“P2G”), the capital conservation buffer (“CCB”), the COVID-19 pandemic, the countercyclical capital buffer (“CCyB”) (the latter being set by the national at least until 1 October macroprudential authorities) and the liquidity coverage ratio (“LCR”). 2020. Banks can fully use capital and liquidity buffers. https://ec.europa.eu/info/li ve-work-travel- The new Capital Requirements Directive V (“CRDV”), which was initially eu/health/coronavirus- scheduled to come into effect in January 2021, has been accelerated. Banks will response_en benefit from relief in the composition of capital for Pillar 2 Requirements (“P2R”) and will be able to fulfil the P2R with a minimum 56.25% Common Equity Tier 1 https://www.ecb.europa.e (“CET1”, highest quality of own funds, mainly composed of shares and retained u/press/pr/date/2020/html/ earnings from previous years) as a general principle. The remaining P2R can be ecb.pr200312~45417d86 filled with Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruments (can be equity or liability 43.en.html instruments of lower quality). https://www.bankingsuper According to the ECB, capital relief amounts to €120 billion and could be used to vision.europa.eu/press/pr/ absorb losses or potentially finance up to €1.8 trillion of lending. date/2020/html/ssm.pr200 320~4cdbbcf466.en.html ECB Yes ECB gives banks further flexibility in treatment of loans backed by public https://www.bankingsuper support measures vision.europa.eu/press/pr/ date/2020/html/ssm.pr200 ECB has introduced supervisory flexibility regarding the treatment of non- 320~4cdbbcf466.en.html performing loans (“NPLs”), in particular to allow banks to fully benefit from guarantees and moratoriums put in place by public authorities to tackle distress resulting from COVID-19, in an effort to support solutions for temporarily distressed debtors. Supervisors will exercise flexibility regarding the classification of debtors as “unlikely to pay” when banks call on public guarantees granted in the context of COVID-19 and regarding loans under Covid-19 related public moratoriums. -2- EU LEVEL Provider Banks Scheme and high level summary Other comments and related links NPLs under public guarantees will benefit from preferential prudential treatment in terms of supervisory expectations about loss provisioning. ECB recommends that all banks avoid pro-cyclical assumptions in their models to determine provisions for NPLs and that those banks opt for the IFRS 9 transitional rules. ECB Yes Longer-term refinancing operations (“LTROs”) https://www.ecb.europa.e u/press/pr/date/2020/html/ ECB will provide additional LTROs to provide immediate liquidity support to ecb.mp200312~8d3aec3ff banks. 2.en.html The operations will be conducted as fixed rate tender procedures with full For detail on the latest allotment. The rate will be fixed at the average of the deposit facility rate over the update: life of the respective operation. Interest will be paid when the respective operation matures. All operations will mature on 24 June 2020. https://www.ecb.europa.e u/press/pr/date/2020/html/ The LTROs will provide liquidity at favourable terms to bridge the period until the ecb.mp200430~1eaa1282 TLTRO III (below) operation in June 2020. 65.en.html (“ ”) Third series of targeted longer-term refinancing operations TLTRO III For the original decision More favourable terms on TLTRO III’s (originally launched in March 2019) will be on TLTRO III: applied for banks, for operations outstanding during the period from June 2020 https://www.ecb.europa.e to June 2021, in an effort to support bank lending to those affected most by the u/ecb/legal/pdf/en_ecb_2 spread of COVID-19, in particular SMEs. 019_21_f_sign.pdf Interest rates on the TLTRO III operations during this period will be 50 basis For detail on PELTROs: points below the average rate applied in the Eurosystem’s main refinancing operations. https://www.ecb.europa.e u/press/pr/date/2020/html/ Counterparties whose eligible net lending reaches the lending performance ecb.pr200430_1~477f400 threshold, the interest rate over the period from June 2020 to June 2021 will be e39.en.html 50 basis points below the average deposit facility rate prevailing over the same period. The maximum total amount that counterparties are entitled to borrow in TLTRO III operations has been raised to 50% of their stock of eligible loans to non- financial corporations and households as at 28 February 2019. TLTROs-III will each have a maturity of 2 years. -3- EU LEVEL Provider Banks Scheme and high level summary Other comments and related links New series of non-targeted pandemic emergency longer-term refinancing operations (“PELTROs”) The PELTROs consist of seven additional refinancing operations commencing in May 2020 and maturing in a staggered sequence between July and September 2021 in line with the duration of the collateral easing measures. These operations will provide liquidity support to the euro area financial system and contribute to preserving the smooth functioning of money markets by providing an effective backstop after the expiry of LTROs that have been conducted since March 2020, and will allow counterparties to benefit from collateral easing measures in place until the end of September 2021. The operations will be carried out as fixed rate tender procedures with full allotment, with an interest rate that is 25 basis points below the average rate on the main refinancing operations prevailing over the life of each PELTRO. The operations provide longer-term funding for counterparties with decreasing tenors, starting with a term of 16 months in the first operation and ending with a term of 8 months in the last operation. ECB Yes Asset purchase programme (“APP”) For detail on the existing APP: In combination with the existing APP (part of a package of monetary