Recital 7

(7)In order to ensure the proportionate application of the disclosure requirements set out in Article 443 of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 to smaller institutions which do not have material levels of asset encumbrance, information on the quality of encumbered and unencumbered assets should not be required from such smaller institutions. Information on the quality of encumbered and unencumbered assets (‘asset quality indicators’) is based on the asset quality properties attributed to assets of extremely high liquidity and credit quality and assets of high liquidity and credit quality, as defined in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/61 ⁶ . As investment firms that do not form part of a banking group are not covered by that Delegated Regulation and, given that, where investment firms form part of a banking group, the relevant information is disclosed on a consolidated basis, it is appropriate to also exempt investment firms from disclosing information on the quality of encumbered and unencumbered assets, to avoid incurring disproportionate costs.