“The European Banking Authority (EBA) released today its final technical standards on supervisory reporting on Non-Performing Exposures and Forbearance, which will provide consistent indicators of asset quality of banks across the European Union. The EBA also issued recommendations on asset quality reviews (AQRs) aimed at supporting existing and/or planned reviews across the EU. The standards on Non-Performing Exposures and Forbearance provide common definitions and reporting templates to allow supervisors to assess the level of forbearance activities and non-performing loans on a comparable basis across the EU. More harmonised asset quality reviews, based on more comparable data, will help address uncertainties around EU banks’ asset quality in the current context, and will support on-going and future monitoring of levels and changes in asset quality. The proposed definitions of non-performing and forbearance exposures rely on the existing concepts of default and impairment but provide for specific harmonisation features. In particular, the definition of non performing exposures focuses on a 90-day past due threshold, while the definition of forbearance focuses on concessions extended to debtors who face, or may face, difficulties in meeting payments. Forborne exposures can be identified in both the non-performing and the performing portfolios.”