IRELAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Vincent McConnon, William Foot, John Adams, Michelle Holligan, Nicole Burke and Graham Bloomfield, Matheson LLP
• potential amendments to the transparency requirements applicable to private securitisa - tions; • the streamlining of supervision by national competent authorities; • increasing the attractiveness of the simple, transparent and standardised (STS) label; • the potential establishment of a pan-Europe - an securitisation platform; • capital requirements and the conditions to be met for the synthetic risk transfer (SRT) tests; • the treatment of insurers in the securitisation market; and • restrictions on the ability of certain pension funds to invest in securitisations. The Securitisation Consultation closed on 4 December 2024. Guidelines on synthetic securitisations On 27 May 2024, the European Banking Author - ity (EBA) published its final guidelines on the cri - teria for on-balance-sheet (ie, synthetic) securiti - sations to be recognised as STS securitisations under the Securitisation Regulation (the “STS Guidelines”). The STS Guidelines have applied since 9 December 2024. The STS Guidelines contain a range of clarifi - cations and interpretations, including further details regarding: • the requirements for synthetic excess spread committed by the originator and available as credit enhancement for investors; • the expertise of the servicer and the require - ment for servicers to have well-documented policies, procedures and risk management controls; • the requirement for underlying exposures to be subject to verification by an independent party prior to closing; and
• certain representations and warranties required to be provided by the originator in the securitisation documentation in respect of the characteristics of the underlying expo - sures. While introducing the STS Guidelines, the EBA also made a limited set of targeted amendments to the existing EBA guidelines on asset-backed commercial paper, and on non-asset-backed commercial paper for STS securitisations. These amendments were targeted to ensure appropri - ate consistency across all three sets of guide - lines. The EU Green Bond Standard There has been a significant recent development in the international green bond market. Regula - tion (EU) 2023/2631 (as amended; the “Green Bond Standard Regulation”) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 30 November 2023 and came into force on 21 December 2024. While the European Green Bond Standard (EuGBS) provided for in the Green Bond Standard Regulation is a volun - tary standard, it has the potential to become the leading standard in the international green bond market. It is an ambitious standard that goes well beyond existing guidelines and labels in the international green bond market. The new EuGBS is open to any issuer of green bonds, including Irish issuers and issuers located out - side of the EU. The key terms of the Green Bond Standard Reg - ulation include the following: • the funds raised by EuGBS bonds must be allocated to projects aligned with the taxon - omy outlined in the EU Taxonomy Regulation (the “EU Taxonomy”);
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