Regulation & Risk
Tailored solutions for banks and financial service providers – from concept to operational implementation.
An industry in transition
Market globalisation, the Europeanisation of supervision, mergers and restructurings, steadily rising compliance costs and growing capital and liquidity requirements present the financial industry with particular challenges. Added to this are the macroeconomic environment, new competitors and changing customer behaviour.
We offer a holistic advisory approach and implement tailored solutions efficiently. Through our work on national committees, we always stay up to date with changes to the legal framework.
Our focus areas
Regulatory advisory
Gap and impact analyses and implementation projects on regulatory topics.
Answering specific regulatory questions on the Austrian Banking Act, CRR, CRD, BRRD/BaSAG and AML.
Inspections by the FMA, OeNB and ECB
Preparation for and support during on-site and off-site inspections.
Dry run: simulation of an on-site inspection with typical supervisory questions, document requests and interviews.
Support with ad hoc requests, remediation of findings and implementation of recommendations.
Structured dialogue
Support in management meetings with the FMA and ECB as part of the structured dialogue.
Quality assurance of presentation materials and data quality checks (DQ checks).
Preparation for supervisory governance deep dives.
Credit risk
Credit review and creditworthiness analysis.
Lending processes and workflow management.
Monitoring and early warning systems.
Portfolio analysis and reporting.
UTP and forbearance reviews
Review of the identification of unlikely-to-pay indicators and forbearance measures under the CRR and the relevant EBA Guidelines.
Drafting and revising the related manuals, policies and checklists.
Large exposures and groups of connected clients
Assessing and forming groups of connected clients under the CRR and the EBA Guidelines, including the review of economic dependencies.
Compliance with large exposure limits, large exposure reporting and support with supervisory queries.
Anti-money laundering and sanctions
Drafting and reviewing AML policies and client acceptance policies.
Risk assessment for money laundering, terrorist financing and sanctions.
Source of wealth reports: review of the source of funds, ownership structures and beneficial owners.
Implementation of FATCA requirements.
Outsourcing
Taking over outsourced control functions: internal audit, banking act compliance, AML compliance and securities compliance.
DORA/ICT implementation projects
Gap analyses and implementation of DORA requirements on ICT risk management, incident reporting, resilience testing and ICT third-party providers.
Business continuity management, including the methodology for assessing the criticality of business processes.
Sustainability / ESG
Integrating climate and environmental risks into risk management, ICAAP and credit processes in line with supervisory expectations.
Support with ESG disclosure and sustainability reporting.
CRR III and CRD VI (Basel IV)
Applicability, gap and impact analyses.
Answering regulatory questions on initiatives of the Basel Committee and the EU, for example the new standardised approach for credit risk and operational risk.
ICAAP 2.0
Implementing current supervisory expectations for the ICAAP: normative and economic perspectives, risk inventory and risk-bearing capacity.
Reviewing and developing methods and reporting to the management and supervisory boards.
SREP
Preparation for SREP assessments and follow-up on supervisory queries.
Own funds/capital buffers
Support in implementing the sectoral systemic risk buffer for real estate risks under the Capital Buffer Regulation 2025: identifying affected exposures by ÖNACE code, location, application at solo and group level, and reporting.
Licensing procedures
Preparation of all required documents and business plans, dialogue with national and European supervisory authorities and set-up of operations.
M&A
Advising on bank M&A transactions on the buy side and sell side.
Regulatory and financial due diligence and support in the related supervisory procedures.
Business valuation
Valuation of credit institutions, financial service providers and companies, and plausibility checks of purchase prices.
Liquidation planning: determining liquidation values and planning orderly wind-down scenarios.
Regulatory reporting and disclosure
Validation and operational support for ongoing reporting (VERA, COREP, LCR, NSFR, LR, central credit register), including a review of the data and process landscape.
Preparing responses to OeNB queries.
Recovery and resolution planning (MREL)
Preparing, updating and reviewing recovery plans under BRRD/BaSAG.
Preparation for the MREL requirement, simulation of an indicative MREL ratio and plausibility checks of FMA requirements.
Stress testing
Support with internal and external stress tests and comprehensive preparation for future EBA and ECB stress tests.