Key takeaways

• The European Supervisory Authorities have issued a joint consultation paper on draft guidelines for the prudential assessment of acquisitions in the financial sector.
• The guidelines will have an impact on the process of undertaking M&A transactions in the financial sector in the EU.
• For proposed acquirers, the guidelines harmonise the conditions for notifying a competent regulatory authority of a proposed acquisition or an increase in a qualifying holding in a target entity, and clarify the information that has to be provided.
• For competent regulatory authorities, the guidelines define the procedure to be followed and specify the criteria that need to be applied in the assessment process.