As the sovereign debt crisis further developed in Europe in the autumn of 2011, European lawmakers where required to address the impact bank failures could have on the deteriorating financial position of certain member states. The agreed upon strengthening of the resilience of banks by increasing the capital base as followed from the Basel III accord9, was to be introduced at a quicker pace than followed from the ordinary law making process to implement Basel III in Europe. The initial proposals for the CRD IV legislation package were only published a few months before the sovereign debt crisis spun off. The debate on that comprehensive CRD IV proposal of the European Commission was only in an early stage. At the same time, it became clear that banks in the Eurozone (and in other parts of the European Union) faced significant constraints as regards certain sovereign debt positions.