REGULATION (EC) No 2819/98 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 1 December 1998 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (ECB/1998/16)
THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (1), and in particular Articles 5(1) and 6(4) thereof,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank (2), and in particular to Article 6(4) thereof,
(1) Whereas the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) requires, for the fulfilment of its tasks, the production of the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector, the principal purpose of which is to provide the European Central Bank (ECB) with a comprehensive statistical picture of monetary developments covering the aggregate financial assets and liabilities of monetary financial institutions (MFIs) in the participating Member States, which are viewed as one economic territory;
(2) Whereas the ECB shall, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community (hereinafter referred to as 'the Treaty`) and under the conditions laid down in the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred to as 'the Statute`), make regulations to the extent necessary to implement the tasks of the ESCB as defined in the Statute and in some cases laid down in the provisions of the Council referred to in Article 106(6) of the Treaty;
(3) Whereas Article 5.1 of the Statute requires the ECB, assisted by the national central banks (NCBs), to collect the necessary statistical information either from the competent national authorities or directly from economic agents in order to undertake the tasks of the ESCB; whereas Article 5.2 of the Statute stipulates that the NCBs shall carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1;
(4) Whereas NCBs are not prevented from collecting, from the actual reporting population, the statistical information necessary to fulfil the statistical requirements of the ECB as part of a broader statistical reporting framework which the NCBs establish under their own responsibility in accordance with Community or national law or established practice and which serves other statistical purposes, as long as the fulfilment of the statistical requirements set out in this Regulation is not jeopardised; whereas in order to foster transparency it is appropriate, in these cases, to inform the reporting agents that data are collected to fulfil other statistical purposes; whereas, in specific cases, the ECB may rely on statistical information collected for such purposes to fulfil its requirements;
(5) Whereas Article 3 of the aforementioned Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires the ECB to specify the actual reporting population within the limits of the reference reporting population and entitles it to fully or partly exempt specific classes of reporting agents from its statistical reporting requirements; whereas Article 6(4) of the said Regulation provides that the ECB may adopt regulations specifying the conditions under which the right to verify or to carry out the compulsory collection of statistical information may be exercised;
(6) Whereas Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 empowers the ECB to adopt regulations or decisions in order to exempt institutions from minimum reserves, to specify modalities to exclude or deduct liabilities owed to any other institution from the reserve basis and to establish differing reserve ratios for specific categories of liabilities; whereas Article 6 of the said Regulation attributes to the ECB the right to collect from institutions the information necessary for the application of minimum reserves and the right to verify the accuracy and quality of the information which institutions provide to demonstrate compliance with the minimum reserve obligation; whereas it is desirable, in order to reduce the overall reporting burden, for the statistical information regarding the monthly balance sheet to be used, in addition, for the regular calculation of the reserve base of the credit institutions subject to the ESCB's minimum reserve system;
(7) Whereas Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 provides for Member States to organise themselves in the field of statistics and to co-operate fully with the ESCB in order to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from Article 5 of the Statute;
(8) Whereas, while it is recognised that regulations made by the ECB under Article 34.1 of the Statute do not confer any rights or impose any obligations on non-participating Member States, Article 5 of the Statute applies to both participating and non-participating Member States; whereas Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 recalls that Article 5 of the Statute, together with Article 5 of the Treaty, implies an obligation to design and implement at the national level all the measures that the non-participating Member States consider appropriate in order to carry out the collection of the statistical information needed to fulfil the ECB's statistical reporting requirements and the timely preparations in the field of statistics in order for them to become participating Member States,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
Definitions
For the purpose of this Regulation, the terms 'reporting agents`, 'participating Member State`, 'resident` and 'residing` shall have the same meaning as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98.
Article 2
Actual reporting population
1. The actual reporting population shall consist of the monetary financial institutions (MFIs) resident in the territory of the participating Member States. For statistical purposes, MFIs comprise resident credit institutions as defined in Community law, and all other resident financial institutions whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from entities other than MFIs and, for their own account (at least in economic terms), to grant credits and/or make investments in securities.
2. National central banks (NCBs) may grant derogations to small MFIs, provided that the MFIs which contribute to the monthly consolidated balance sheet account for at least 95 % of the total MFI balance sheet in each participating Member State. NCBs shall check the fulfilment of this condition in good time in order to grant or withdraw, if necessary, any derogation with effect from the start of each year.
Article 3
List of MFIs for statistical purposes
1. In accordance with the classification principles set out in Annex I, part 1, paragraph I, the ECB shall establish and maintain, taking into account the requirements in respect of frequency and timeliness which arise from its use in the context of the ESCB's minimum reserve system, a list of MFIs for statistical purposes. The competence to establish and maintain the list of MFIs for statistical purposes pertains to the Executive Board of the ECB.
2. The list of MFIs for statistical purposes and its updates shall be made accessible by NCBs and the ECB to the institutions concerned in an appropriate way, including by electronic means, via the Internet or, at the request of the reporting agents concerned, in paper form.
3. The list of MFIs for statistical purposes shall be for information only. However, in the event that the latest accessible version of the list in accordance with Article 3(2) is incorrect, the ECB shall not impose sanctions on any entity which did not properly fulfil its reporting obligation to the extent that it relied in good faith on the incorrect list.
Article 4
Statistical reporting obligations
1. For the purposes of the regular production of the consolidated balance sheet of the MFI sector, the actual reporting population shall report monthly statistical information relating to its balance sheet to the NCB of the Member State in which the MFI is resident. Further details on certain items of the balance sheet shall be reported quarterly.
2. The required statistical information is specified in Annex I to this Regulation.
3. The NCBs shall define the reporting procedures to be followed by the actual reporting population.
4. The derogations referred to in Article 2, paragraph 2, shall have the effect of reducing the statistical reporting obligations of MFIs as follows:
- the credit institutions to which such derogations apply shall be subject to the reduced reporting requirements as set out in Annex II to this Regulation,
- those small MFIs that are not credit institutions shall be subject to the reduced reporting obligations as set out in Annex III.
Small MFIs may choose not to make use of the derogations and to fulfil the full reporting obligations instead.
5. The required statistical information shall be reported in accordance with the minimum standards for transmission, accuracy, conceptual compliance and revisions as set out in Annex IV to this Regulation.
Article 5
Use of the reported statistical information under the Regulation of the European Central Bank on the application of minimum reserves
1. The statistical information reported in accordance with this Regulation by credit institutions shall be used to calculate the reserve base in accordance with the Regulation (EC) No 2818/98 of the European Central Bank of 1 December 1998 on the application of minimum reserves (ECB/1998/15) (3). In particular, each credit institution shall use this information to verify the fulfilment of its reserve obligation over the maintenance period.
2. Transitional and specific provisions which shall apply for the purpose of the application of the ESCB's minimum reserve system are set out in Annex II to this Regulation.
Article 6
Verification and compulsory collection
The right to verify or to compulsorily collect the information which reporting agents provide in compliance with the statistical reporting requirements set out in this Regulation shall be exercised by the NCBs, without prejudice to the right of the ECB to exercise this right itself. This right shall be exercised in particular when any institution included in the actual reporting population does not fulfil the minimum standards for transmission, accuracy, conceptual compliance and revisions as set out in Annex IV to this Regulation.
Article 7
Final provision
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 1999.
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 1 December 1998.