CRD VI and EU Branch Authorisation: Why Notarised and Apostilled Documents Are About to Become Critical

What CRD VI actually changes for non-EU banks

CRD VI amends the existing Capital Requirements Directive (2013/36/EU) and introduces Article 21c, a new harmonised authorisation regime for third-country undertakings. Until now, each EU Member State set its own rules for how non-EU banks could access its market. Article 21c ends that patchwork.

Under the new regime, a third-country institution offering core banking services in the EU, including lending, taking deposits, and issuing guarantees, must generally establish an authorised branch in the relevant Member State, or set up an EU-authorised subsidiary instead. Institutions that already operate an EU branch are not automatically grandfathered in either. Most will need to go through a fresh authorisation process unless the local supervisor explicitly agrees to recognise the existing one.

There are limited exemptions, most notably for reverse solicitation, where a client approaches the institution entirely on their own initiative, and for certain investment services already covered under MiFID II. But for anything falling inside the core banking scope, the branch requirement applies.

The CRD VI timeline: 11 January 2027 and the transitional period

The new third-country branch rules take effect from 11 January 2027. Contracts entered into before 11 July 2026 benefit from transitional provisions and can continue under existing rules until they expire, but new business falls under the new regime immediately once it applies.

The European Banking Authority was required to issue guidelines further specifying the authorisation criteria by 10 July 2026. Institutions that have not started preparing their branch authorisation applications are already working against a tight window, since the application and review process itself takes months, not weeks.

Which documents a branch authorisation application requires

An EU branch authorisation application is a regulatory filing, and regulatory filings run on paper that can be legally verified. A competent authority reviewing an application from a third-country institution will typically require, among other things:

• Certificate of incorporation and constitutional documents of the parent institution
• Board resolutions authorising the establishment of the branch
• Powers of attorney for the individuals managing the application and the branch
• Passport or ID copies for directors, senior managers, and beneficial owners
• Corporate good standing certificates from the home jurisdiction

None of these carry legal weight in an EU regulatory process on their own. A foreign authority document generally cannot be apostilled directly. It first needs to be notarised, either as a certified true copy or with a witnessed signature, and only then apostilled so the receiving authority can rely on it without further verification.

For institutions headquartered in a Hague Convention country, that apostille step is what makes the documents usable across borders at all. Get the notarisation or apostille wrong, in the wrong order, from the wrong authority, or missing entirely, and the application stalls while the regulatory clock keeps running.

Which institutions fall inside the scope

The rules apply broadly to third-country undertakings providing core banking services in the EU, which in practice covers a wide range of institutions:

• UK banks and financial institutions currently serving EU clients cross-border
• US, Swiss, and other non-EEA banks with EU client relationships
• Fintech and neobanking groups with a non-EU parent entity
• Institutions that already hold an EU branch but face re-authorisation

If your organisation, or your client's, falls into any of these categories and provides lending, deposit-taking, guarantees, or related core banking services into the EU, the branch authorisation process is now a matter of when, not if.

Where the delays actually happen in practice

In practice, the bottleneck in these applications is rarely the legal strategy. It is getting documents notarised and apostilled fast enough, especially when directors, signatories, or beneficial owners are spread across several countries and time zones. Traditional notarisation routes require an in-person appointment, often followed by a separate trip to a different authority for the apostille itself, adding days or weeks per document before an application can even be submitted.

For institutions managing branch authorisation across multiple EU jurisdictions simultaneously, that delay compounds fast.

How NotaryDirect handles CRD VI document packs remotely

NotaryDirect handles notarisation and apostille remotely, by video meeting, with same-day turnaround across 130 Hague Convention countries. A director or signatory anywhere in the world joins a video session with the original document and valid ID, signs or presents it in front of a notary, and receives a notarised, apostilled document back the same day. No office visit, no separate trip for the apostille, and no coordinating between a notary in one country and an apostille authority in another.

For law firms, compliance teams, and corporate service providers managing CRD VI branch authorisation applications on behalf of banking clients, this also works as a white-label service: you invoice your client at your own rate, we invoice you, and your client never needs to know a third party was involved.

With the January 2027 deadline approaching and EU regulators expected to see a wave of branch authorisation applications land at once, the institutions that move early on their document workflow will be the ones that avoid the queue.

75 EUR per notarisation, per document.
75 EUR per apostille, per document.

Frequently asked questions about CRD VI documents