Asset Covered Securities (Amendment) Act 2007

What can be included in the cover assets pool maintained by a designated public credit institution.

36.— Section 48 of the Principal Act is repealed and substituted by the following:

“What can be included in the cover assets pool maintained by a designated public credit institution.

48.— (1) Subject to the other provisions of this Chapter, a designated public credit institution—

(a) may include any public credit asset or substitution asset located within an EEA country or category A country in the cover assets pool maintained by the institution,

(b) shall not include a public credit asset or substitution asset located only within a category B country in the cover assets pool maintained by the institution.

(2) A designated public credit institution may not, subject to subsection (3), include in its cover assets pool—

(a) a section 5(1)(b) asset or a section 5(1)(d) asset unless such asset complies with any creditworthiness standards or criteria which may be specified by the Authority in a regulatory notice made for the purposes of this paragraph,

(b) a section 5(1)(c) asset unless such asset complies with—

(i) risk weighting standards or criteria for capital adequacy purposes which may be specified by the Authority in a regulatory notice made for the purposes of this paragraph, and

(ii) creditworthiness standards or criteria which may be specified by the Authority in a regulatory notice made for the purposes of this paragraph.

(3) A section 5(1)(b) asset, section 5(1)(c) asset or section 5(1)(d) asset may, notwithstanding subsection (2), be included by a designated public credit institution in its cover assets pool provided that—

(a) any such assets comply with creditworthiness standards or criteria, or risk-weighting standards or criteria, which may be specified by the Authority in a regulatory notice made for the purposes of this paragraph, and

(b) the total aggregate nominal or principal amount of all such assets comprised in the cover assets pool at any time does not exceed 20% of the aggregate nominal or principal amount of outstanding public credit covered securities issued by the institution.

(4) The Authority may, by regulatory notice published in Iris Oifigiúil, specify creditworthiness standards or criteria or, as applicable, risk-weighting standards or criteria for the purposes of subsections (2) and (3)(a).

(5) The Authority, when making any regulatory notice provided for in subsection (4), shall have regard to any relevant standards or criteria applicable under the Codified Banking Directive which are relevant to article 22(4) securities that qualify as covered bonds for the purposes of that Directive.

(6) In this section—

‘ section 5(1)( b ) asset ’ means an asset or property which qualifies as a public credit asset by virtue of section 5(1)(b);

‘ section 5(1)( c ) asset ’ means an asset or property which qualifies as a public credit asset by virtue of section 5(1)(c);

‘section 5(1)( d ) asset ’ means an asset or property which qualifies as a public credit asset by virtue of section 5(1)(d).”.