An application for prior approval can be submitted to the Bank to check whether the applicant’s proposed activities qualify as activities subject to the Bank’s prudential supervision.

In principle, the prior approval is binding on the Bank.

Applications for prior approval must be submitted to the Bank in writing, duly signed with a detailed statement of the grounds. Applications must contain at least the following information:

1. all necessary or relevant information to enable the Bank to give prior approval in full knowledge of the facts (including the identity of the applicant and any other persons concerned or third parties, a description of the proposed activities, etc.);
2. a statement of the laws or regulations to which the application relates;
3. a draft answer to the question with detailed legal and, if appropriate, commercial grounds for that answer;
4. confirmation that the application does not concern an activity, operation, agreement, notification or treatment of information with the same characteristics as other activities, operations, agreements or treatment of information which already, directly or indirectly, have legal consequences for the applicant or for any entity established by the applicant, or for which a procedure has already been initiated for the imposition of an administrative fine, for an administrative appeal or for legal action.

The applicant must inform the Bank if he knows that a question of interpretation has been submitted to another authority concerning the application or an issue with the same characteristics.

For more information, see Article 36/5 of the Law of 22 February 1998 establishing the organic statute of the National Bank of Belgium and the Royal Decree of 23 August 2004 implementing Article 63, §§ 1 and 3 of the Law of 22 August 2002 on the supervision of the financial sector and financial services.