20/11/2017 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 20 November, the Council of the EU adopted without discussion two inter-institutional agreements reached in May of this year (see EUROPE 11799) setting out new securitisation rules. The future regulation provides for criteria to label securitised products as Simple, Transparent and Standardised (STS). In particular, the institutions agreed on a preferential treatment of capital for so-called STS securitisations and a new hierarchy for the risk calculation methods. Readers may recall that the European Parliament approved these new rules on 26 October, despite ongoing differences of opinion between political groups (see EUROPE 11892). In a press release, the Estonian finance minister, Toomas Tõniste, said that the new rules would “help reinvigorate the securitisation market, thereby increasing the capacity for lending to households and businesses”. (MF)