Ireland Transposes CRD VI And Article 21c – Third Country Branch Requirement

• Published date: 17 July 2026
• Subject Matter: Finance and Banking, Capital Adequacy/BASEL, Financial Services
• Law Firm: Maples Group
• Author: Mr Stephen Carty, Sarah Francis, Callaghan Kennedy, Stephen McLoughlin, Mary O'Neill and Lorna Smith

What You Need to Know

The statutory instrument transposing the Capital Requirements Directive (EU) 2024/1619 (“CRD VI”) into Irish law has been published. In this update we look at what this means, and where this might bite from a transactional perspective in the Irish market.

CRD VI

CRD VI¹ is the latest iteration of the EU Banking Directive/Regulation package and amends the Capital Requirements Directive (“CRD”).²

The European Union (Capital Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (the “Amending Regulations”)³ transpose CRD VI into Irish law. They were published on 14 July 2026 and came into effect on 10 July 2026.

The Third-Country Branch Requirement

One of the key changes introduced by CRD VI is that certain entities established in a third country that carry out ‘core banking' activities in a Member State must establish an authorised branch in that Member State (the “Third-Country Branch Requirement”). Regulation 9L of the Amending Regulations transposes the Third-Country Branch Requirement in Article 21c of CRD VI into Irish law.

The core banking services, which trigger the Third-Country Branch Requirement, are accepting deposits (or other repayable funds), lending including, inter alia: consumer credit, credit agreements relating to immovable property, factoring, with or without recourse, financing of commercial transactions (including forfeiting), and providing guarantees/commitments.

All third-country firms offering deposit-taking or other repayable funds are in scope, regardless of their own regulatory status. All third-country firms who would be considered
credit institutions if established in the European Union (as per the definition in CRD) are in scope in relation to lending and guarantees activities.

So, the Third-Country Branch Requirement will not apply to funds, insurance undertakings and other entities whose business activities would not render them a CRD credit institution if conducted within the EU. As such, private credit remains largely unaffected.

Transposition Text

There has been a lot of discussion amongst industry bodies and participants across the finance and the funds sectors (the latter, in the context of fund financing and custody/sub-custody arrangements which engage core banking services) around whether the transposition text would include any language to clarify when a core banking service is to be considered “carried out” in Ireland.

The Amending Regulations follow the wording of CRD VI faithfully, which should allow...