Regulation (EC) No 2423/2001 of the European Central Bank
of 22 November 2001
concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector
(ECB/2001/13)
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 to Article 5(1) and Article 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,
Whereas:
(1) 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)(3) has already been amended by Regulation (EC) No 1921/2000 (ECB/2000/8)(4); now that new substantial amendments are being made to the said Regulation, it is desirable that the provisions in question should be recast by bringing them together in a single text with this Regulation.
(2) 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 (MFI) sector. The principal purpose thereof is to provide the European Central Bank (ECB) with a comprehensive statistical picture of monetary developments in the participating Member States, which are viewed as one economic territory. These statistics cover the aggregate financial assets and liabilities, in terms of stocks, high quality flows for loans and also improved flows for holdings of securities.
(3) 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 adopted by the Council referred to in Article 107(6) of the Treaty.
(4) 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. Article 5.2 of the Statute stipulates that the NCBs shall carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1.
(5) It may be necessary, and may reduce the reporting burden, for NCBs to collect 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, provided that the fulfilment of the statistical requirements of the ECB is not jeopardised. 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. In specific cases, the ECB may rely on statistical information collected for such purposes to fulfil its requirements.
(6) Article 3 of 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. Article 6(4) 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.
(7) Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 empowers the ECB to adopt regulations or decisions in order to exempt institutions from the minimum reserve requirements, 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. Under Article 6, the ECB has 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 requirements. 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.
(8) Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 provides for Member States to organise themselves in the field of statistics and to cooperate fully with the ESCB in order to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from Article 5 of the Statute.
(9) While it is recognised that regulations adopted 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. 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 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 timely preparations in the field of statistics in order for them to become participating Member States.
(10) In order to facilitate the liquidity management of the ECB and of credit institutions, reserve requirements should be confirmed at the latest on the first day of the maintenance period; the need may exceptionally arise for credit institutions to report revisions to the reserve base or to reserve requirements which have been confirmed; the procedures for confirmation or acknowledgement of reserve requirements are without prejudice to the obligation for reporting agents always to report correct statistical information and to revise incorrect statistical information they may have already reported.
(11) The determination of specific procedures for mergers and divisions involving credit institutions is necessary in order to clarify the obligations of these institutions in respect of reserve requirements; the definitions of mergers and divisions laid down in this Regulation are based on definitions already existing in secondary Community legislation relating to public limited liability companies. These definitions have been adapted to the purposes of this Regulation; these procedures are without prejudice to the possibility of holding minimum reserves through an intermediary.
(12) The monetary statistics of the ECB are derived from MFI balance sheet statistics collected in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2819/98 (ECB/1998/16) which was prepared during the second stage of economic and monetary union and so were considered to be only the minimum set of data required for monetary policy purposes. Moreover, the Regulation only covered the collection of balance sheet stocks and not the reporting of revaluation adjustment data required to compile flow statistics for counterparts of the broad monetary aggregate M3, from which the growth rates are derived. Taking into account the limitations of these sets of data, it was necessary to enhance the MFI balance sheet statistics.
(13) It is necessary to expand the monthly requirements to provide a monthly breakdown of deposit liabilities by subsector and further by maturity/currency and of loans by subsector/maturity and purpose as these breakdowns are considered essential for monetary policy purposes. This includes the integration of data previously collected only on a quarterly basis.
(14) It is necessary to derive stock and flow statistics for the monetary aggregates and counterparts in a timely manner. From the consolidated balance sheet in terms of stocks, flow statistics are derived using additional statistical information relating to exchange rate changes, other changes in the value of securities and the write-offs/write-downs of loans and other adjustments such as reclassifications.
(15) It is necessary to ensure the availability of appropriately harmonised and high quality data on write-offs/write-downs on loans by addressing a requirement to the statistical reporting agents. There is also a need to collect data on price revaluations of securities.
(16) The separate balance sheet category "money market paper" is removed and merged with the data category "debt securities issued" on the liability side. Instruments classified in this category are entered under "debt securities issued" and allocated according to their original maturity. A corresponding reallocation has been taken also on the asset side of the MFI balance sheet.
(17) The definition of deposits should take into account the use of balances representing prepaid amounts in the context of electronic money,
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 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 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 terms of stocks, 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 Part 1(I) of Annex I, the ECB shall establish and maintain a list of MFIs for statistical purposes, 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. 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 paragraph 2 is incorrect, the ECB shall not impose sanctions on any entity which did not properly fulfil its reporting requirements to the extent that it relied in good faith on the incorrect list.
Article 4
Statistical reporting requirements
1. For the purposes of the regular production of the consolidated balance sheet of the MFI sector, in terms of stocks and flows, the actual reporting population shall report monthly statistical information relating to its end-of-month balance sheet and monthly flow adjustments in respect of write-offs/write-downs of loans and price revaluations in respect of security holdings during the reporting period, 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, in terms of stocks.
2. The required statistical information is specified in Annex I to this Regulation.
3. 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.
4. The NCBs shall define and implement the reporting arrangements to be followed by the actual reporting population in accordance with national characteristics. The NCBs shall ensure that these reporting arrangements provide the statistical information required and allow accurate checking of compliance with the minimum standards for transmission, accuracy, conceptual compliance and revisions as referred to in Article 4(3).
5. The derogations referred to in Article 2(2) shall have the effect of reducing the statistical reporting requirements 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 requirements as set out in Annex III to this Regulation.
Small MFIs may choose not to make use of the derogations and to fulfil the full reporting requirements instead.
6. Without prejudice to the derogation in Article 2(2), NCBs may grant a derogation in respect of the reporting of revaluation adjustments to money market funds (MMFs), removing from the MMFs any requirement to report the revaluation adjustment.
7. NCBs may grant a derogation in respect of the frequency and the timeliness of the reporting of price revaluations of securities and require these data on a quarterly basis and with the same timeliness as for stock data reported on a quarterly basis, subject to compliance with the following requirements:
- reporting agents shall provide the NCBs with the relevant information on valuation practices, including quantitative indications on the percentage of their holdings of these instruments subject to different valuation methods,
- where a substantial price revaluation has occurred, NCBs shall be entitled to request reporting agents to provide additional information relating to the month in which the development took place.
8. In the event of a merger, a division or any other reorganisation that might affect the fulfilment of its statistical obligations, the reporting agent involved shall inform the relevant NCB, once the intention to implement such operation has become public and in due time before the merger, the division or the reorganisation takes effect, of the procedures that are planned to fulfil the statistical reporting requirements set out in this Regulation.
Article 5
Use of the reported statistical information for the purposes of Regulation (EC) No 2818/98 (ECB/1998/15)
1. The statistical information reported by credit institutions in accordance with this Regulation shall be used by each credit institution to calculate its reserve base in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2818/98 of the European Central Bank of 1 December 1998 on the application of minimum reserves (ECB/1998/15)(5), as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1921/2000 (ECB/2000/8). In particular, each credit institution shall use this information to verify the fulfilment of its reserve requirement over the maintenance period.
2. Without prejudice to the obligations imposed upon reporting agents by Article 4 and of Annex IV to this Regulation, credit institutions subject to minimum reserves may report revisions to the reserve base and to the reserve requirement in accordance with the procedures mentioned in Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2818/98 (ECB/1998/15).
3. Specific and transitional provisions for the purposes of the application of the ESCB's minimum reserve system are set out in Annex II to this Regulation. The specific provisions of this Annex shall prevail over provisions laid down in Regulation (EC) No 2818/98 (ECB/1998/15).
Article 6
Verification and compulsory collection
The right to verify or to collect compulsorily the information which reporting agents shall 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 these rights itself. This right shall be exercised in particular when an 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
Transitional provisions
Transitional provisions for application of parts to this Regulation are laid down in Annex V to this Regulation.
Article 8
Repeal
1. Regulation (EC) No 2819/98 (ECB/1998/16) is hereby repealed.
2. References made to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as being made to this Regulation.
Article 9
Final provision
This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 2002.
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 22 November 2001.