EU View Bulletin – February 2026

We are delighted to share with you the latest CRD6 Bulletin. Here you will find insights and information about the latest intel we have gathered across the EEA jurisdictions on the transposition of Article 21C of CRD6. As a reminder, the provisions of Article 21C come into force on 11 January 2027 and the requirements must be transposed into national law by 10 July 2026. To assist you, our Quick Reference Guide, which is included in the EU View subscription and is available to CRD6 Manager subscribers, gives an overview of the implementation progress in the Member States.

As mentioned, our CRD6 Manager is a subscription service tracking implementation of CRD6 articles centrally as well as in key EU jurisdictions and complements our CRD6 offering. The tool has generated significant interest, with a number of clients requesting demos and making enquiries so please get in touch to find out how this tool can assist with your implementation.

We have included more detail below and, as always, we would be very happy to provide further information on the EU View subscription, our CRD6 solutions and the wider cross-border services, so please contact us at CRD6@simmons-simmons.com, if you are interested in any of these areas.

CRD6 Implementation progress

Under CRD6, Member States were required to adopt and publish implementing legislation by 10 January 2026, with effect from 11 January 2026. By the deadline, only Hungary and Italy had joined two other Member States in enacting final legislation. Based on discussions with local counsel, adoption in the remaining Member States is now expected in the spring or later in Q2. Although this delay should not affect the Article 21C implementation deadline of 11 January 2027, there is still uncertainty over how individual Member States will interpret and apply its requirements and exemptions.

Please see the summary of the implementation status across the EEA below:

• 5 Member States have final legislation (since the last update, with the addition of Slovenia):
  • Czech Republic - Article 21C provisions entered into force on 11 January 2026
  • Denmark - Article 21C provisions will enter into force on 1 January 2027,
  • Hungary, Italy and Slovenia - Article 21C provisions will enter into force on 11 January 2027.
• 16 Members States have published draft legislation (since the last update, with the addition of Romania): Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden
• 9 Member States are yet to publish draft legislation: Austria, Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain

For more detail, please refer to the Quick Reference Guide available on the CRD6 Manager and EU View portals.

CRD6, Article 21C transposition developments – what is the latest?

Looking across the Member States, this is what we have been hearing in the past month:

Ireland

While the draft implementing law is still not available in Ireland, the Department of Finance has published a Ministerial Brief which briefly discussed CRD6 and stated, in particular, that the draft transposing statutory instrument was submitted to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (“OPC”) on 13 June 2025, with the officials currently engaging with OPC to finalise the transposition. Counsel expects that the local law will most likely copy out CRD6 without gold plating. This will of course need to be confirmed once draft or final text is available.

The Department of Finance also published its decisions regarding national discretions under CRD6. Relevantly for the third country branch regime, the decision has been taken not to exercise the discretion under Article 48a(4) of CRD6 that would permit Ireland to apply the same regulatory requirements to third country branches as those applicable to EU authorised credit institutions.

Slovenia

The new Banking Act transposing CRD6 was formally adopted by the National Assembly on 11 February 2026. The Act will enter into force 15 days following its publication in the Official Gazette. The law provides for grandfathering, however the MiFID ancillary services exemption is limited and only extends to services ancillary to core MiFID services under Annex I, Section A of MiFID II, and does not cover services under Section B.

Slovakia

Draft implementing law has now been approved by the Parliament and is pending formal adoption of the final law.

Croatia

Counsel is of the view, based on their reading of the draft law currently discussed in the Croatian Parliament, that the provisions of Article 21C are set to enter into force at the same time as the remainder of the implementing law, with no formal grandfathering provided for. We are awaiting clarification once the law is enacted.

Romania

Draft legislation was published by the Ministry of Finance on 9 February 2026 and is currently under public consultation. Counsel expects that adoption will occur in a matter of a few weeks. Notably, as currently drafted, the MiFID ancillary services exemption is limited and only extends to services ancillary to core MiFID services under Annex I, Section A of MiFID II, and does not cover services under Section B. Grandfathering is not included.

We will keep you updated with new developments but if you have any questions in the meantime, please contact us at crd6@simmons-simmons.com.

What are we talking to clients about?

• We are continuing to assist clients with queries on local implementation in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia particularly regarding available exemptions and their likely application by local regulators.
• We are supporting clients with the review of their existing transactions and the assessment of new opportunities which they are contemplating ahead of the effective dates of grandfathering and Article 21C.

If you would like advice on these topics or anything else relating to CRD6, please get in touch at crd6@simmons-simmons.com and we will be very happy to help.

Our CRD6 Solutions

We offer a range of solutions that focus on CRD6 in general and Article 21C specifically:

• The EU View service provides a Quick Reference Guide for each EU jurisdiction with an overview of the progress of implementation of the key provisions, including Article 21C.
• The CRD6 Manager is tracking all articles in CRD as implemented centrally, such as EBA guidance, as well as locally in key EU locations. CRD6 Manager Lite is focusing specifically on Article 21C. This service will keep subscribers updated on any pertinent issues e.g. what constitutes a service "in" a Member State, gold-plating, continued application of any local exemptions, local interpretation of exemptions. As part of the tool, we are providing an FAQ tracker with frequently asked questions we receive from clients, and which will provide views and advice from Counsel on interpretation, implementation and application to various business lines and products.
• The navigator CRD6 tracker will cover high-level information of some of the key fundamentals and impacts on the navigator guidance and is available for all existing navigator subscribers.

All solutions will be updated on a monthly basis, and you will be notified of the latest changes in relation to CRD6.

For more information on how to subscribe, pricing or to request a demo of any of the above solutions, please contact us at CRD6@simmons-simmons.com.