1. Member States shall ensure that a parent institution in a Member State, a Union parent institution, or an entity referred to in point (c) or (d) of Article 1(1) and its subsidiaries in other Member States or third countries that are institutions or financial institutions covered by the consolidated supervision of the parent undertaking, may enter into an agreement to provide financial support to any other party to the agreement that meets the conditions for early intervention pursuant to Article 27, provided that the conditions laid down in this Chapter are also met.

2. This Chapter does not apply to intra-group financial arrangements including funding arrangements and the operation of centralised funding arrangements provided that none of the parties to such arrangements meets the conditions for early intervention.

3. A group financial support agreement shall not constitute a prerequisite:

(a) to provide group financial support to any group entity that experiences financial difficulties if the institution decides to do so, on a case-by-case basis and according to the group policies if it does not represent a risk for the whole group; or