9.2.3 Asset relief scheme

In most instances, asset relief measures were granted as ad hoc aid. There are, however, also some cases in which asset relief measures were granted in the context of an asset relief scheme. Two prime examples of asset management companies are NAMA in Ireland and SAREB in Spain.1 Other asset relief schemes are: the Austrian asset relief scheme, the German asset relief scheme (N314/2009, 31 July 2009) and the Lithuanian asset relief scheme (N47/2010, 5 August 2010). Interestingly, these schemes have never been used.

NAMA – which stands for National Asset Management Agency – was the asset relief scheme for banks in Ireland. This scheme was approved by the Commission by decision of 26 February 2010.2 The impaired asset measures by which the impaired assets were transferred from the Irish banks to the NAMA were not assessed individually by the Commission. The decisions on the Irish banks that also benefited from other State aid measures do thus not contain an assessment of the compatibility of the impaired asset measures to the IAC. Nevertheless, reference is made to the NAMA and the decision approving the NAMA.

The approach with respect to NAMA stands in contrast to the approach with respect to the Spanish asset management company SAREB (“Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria”). Unlike the decision on NAMA, there is no overall decision in which the transfers of impaired assets to the SAREB are approved. The measures by which the impaired assets were transferred to the SAREB were assessed separately for each individual beneficiary bank.3