Article 7 Limitation periods for the enforcement of penalties

Article 7 governs the time limits within which the EBA can enforce its penalty decisions — specifically those relating to fines and periodic penalty payments.

It is the enforcement counterpart to Article 6, which deals with limitation periods for imposing penalties in the first place.

Here, the focus shifts to what happens after a decision has already been made final: how long the EBA has to actually collect on it, and what events can pause or reset that clock.

Important points:

• The EBA has a five-year limitation period to enforce final penalty decisions, starting the day after the decision becomes final.
• The limitation period restarts each time the EBA or a competent authority acting at the EBA's request takes any action to enforce payment of a fine or periodic penalty payment.
• The limitation period is suspended when time to pay is granted, or when enforcement is suspended due to a pending appeal before the EBA Board of Appeal or a review by the Court of Justice of the European Union.