Institutions may use specified items as eligible collateral under all approaches: cash on deposit or cash‑assimilated instruments held by the lending institution; debt securities issued by central governments or central banks with ECAI or export credit agency assessments mapped to credit quality steps 1–4; debt securities issued by institutions or other entities with ECAI assessments mapped to specified credit quality steps; short‑term rated debt mapped to steps 1–3; equities or convertible bonds included in a main index; gold bullion; and securitisation positions with a 100% risk weight or lower. Definitions extend to certain regional, public sector, multilateral development bank and international organisation issues.

Debt securities issued by institutions without an ECAI rating may be eligible where listed, senior, other rated senior issues indicate at least credit quality step 3, no adverse information exists and market liquidity is sufficient. Units or shares in CIUs are eligible where daily public pricing, CIU investment limits to eligible instruments and Article 132(3) conditions are met; look‑through or mandate‑based approaches cap eligible amounts where CIUs hold non‑eligible assets and negative non‑eligible values must be offset. Where multiple ECAI assessments exist, specified rules determine which assessment applies. ESMA must develop draft implementing technical standards to specify main indices and recognised exchanges and submit them to the Commission by 31 December 2014, and the Commission may adopt those standards under Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010.