The new Circular addresses several aspects of crucial importance for the credit risk management of banking entities: risk governance, the refinancing of operations, and, especially, the regime for rating and covering credit operations, as well as the treatment of real guarantees and foreclosed assets. Along with other less significant matters, the Circular’s content is completed by changes in criteria regarding the accounting recognition of equity instrument sales and purchases, which will henceforth be on the settlement date, and in the treatment of intangible assets with an indefinite useful life, which will now be systematically amortized.
The requirement for adequate governance in credit risk management has been included in the accounting Circular since its initial drafting. With this reform, the latest modifications introduced in 2015 by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in its Guidelines on credit risk management are incorporated into Spanish accounting legal framework.
