Recital 48

(48)The ‘evolutionary’ nature of this Regulation enables institutions to choose amongst three approaches to credit risk of varying complexity. In order to allow especially small institutions to opt for the more risk-sensitive IRB Approach, the relevant provisions should be read so that exposure classes include all exposures that are, directly or indirectly, put on a par with them throughout this Regulation. As a general rule, the competent authorities should not discriminate between the three approaches with regard to the supervisory review process, i.e. institutions operating according to the provisions of the Standardised Approach should not, for that reason alone, be supervised on a stricter basis.