ECB amends monetary policy implementation guidelines as part of regular review

29 September 2026

• Second-best rating to be introduced for private sector assets as collateral for monetary policy operations
• Haircut schedule for assets used as collateral to be updated
• Haircut treatment of securities issued by financial subsidiaries of non-financial corporate groups to be aligned with that of their non-financial corporate parents

The European Central Bank (ECB) today published amendments to its guidelines on the implementation of monetary policy in the Eurosystem, applicable as of 30 November 2026 as part of a regular review.

The amended guidelines introduce several changes, among others those detailed below:

• As announced on 21 February 2025, the second-best rating issued by external credit assessment institutions will be used to assess the eligibility of private sector assets for use as collateral under the Eurosystem collateral framework and to determine the haircuts to be applied to those assets. This applies to private sector assets such as unsecured bank bonds, covered bank bonds and assets issued by non-financial corporations and the non-euro area public sector. For euro area public sector assets, the first-best rating will continue to apply. For further information, see the FAQs on the use of external ratings in the Eurosystem collateral framework.
• As announced on 17 November 2025, the ECB conducted a review of its risk control framework for monetary policy credit operations to maintain an adequate level of risk protection, improve consistency and enhance the risk equivalence of assets, while ensuring collateral availability. This includes, among others, an update of the haircut schedule, including refining haircuts for own-used or retained assets and increasing granularity in the haircuts applied to individual credit claims by also considering the type of amortisation on each credit claim.
• As announced on 25 June 2026, credit claims that do not comply with all requirements of the general collateral framework but that benefit from a COVID-19-related public sector guarantee under the temporary framework will only remain eligible until the end of 2026.
• As announced on 24 July 2026, the monetary policy implementation guidelines have been amended to allocate, subject to certain conditions, the financial subsidiaries of non-financial corporate (NFC) issuer groups to the same haircut category as non-financial corporations. These entities will now be assigned to haircut category III, eligible as credit claim debtors and subject to the climate factor under the Eurosystem collateral framework, ensuring alignment with their parent NFCs.

Guidelines ECB/2026/26 and ECB/2026/27 are available in English on the ECB’s website and will be published in all 24 official EU languages in the Official Journal of the European Union.

For media queries, please contact Lena-Sophie Demuth, tel.: +49 162 2952316.

Notes

• Governing Council decision on 21 February 2025 on changes to use of external ratings for private sector assets in Eurosystem collateral framework
• Governing Council decision on 17 November 2025 on the ECB’s review of its risk control framework for monetary policy credit operations
• Governing Council decision on 25 June 2026 on the integration of non-financial credit claim portfolios into general collateral framework, phasing out temporary measures
• Governing Council decision on 24 July 2026 on the reclassification of the financial subsidiaries of non-financial companies in the Eurosystem collateral framework
• The new guidelines (Guidelines ECB/2026/26 and ECB/2026/27) amend: (i) Guideline (EU) 2015/510 of the European Central Bank of 19 December 2014 on the implementation of the Eurosystem monetary policy framework (General Documentation Guideline) (ECB/2014/60) (OJ L 91, 2.4.2015, p. 3); and (ii) Guideline (EU) 2016/65 of the European Central Bank of 18 November 2015 on the valuation haircuts applied in the implementation of the Eurosystem monetary policy framework (ECB/2015/35) (OJ L 14, 21.1.2016, p. 30).