Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1998:523
Date: 1998-10-29
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Freedom to provide services
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Italy

Summary of the Judgment
Freedom to provide services — Credit institutions — Prohibition, in the case of persons or under­
takings which are not credit institutions, on carrying on the business of taking deposits or other
repayable funds from the public — Other repayable funds — Meaning — Financial instruments
which are the subject of a contractual agreement to repay the funds paid — Covered
(Council Directives 77/780 and 89/646, Art. 3)
I-855
SUMMARY — CASE G-366/97
The term 'other repayable funds' in Article 3
of the Second Directive 89/646 on the coor­
dination of laws, regulations and administra­
tive provisions relating to the taking up and
pursuit of the business of credit institutions
and amending Directive 77/780, which lays
down a prohibition, in the case of persons or
undertakings which are not credit institu­
tions, on carrying on the business of taking
deposits or other repayable funds from the
public, refers not only to financial instru­
ments which possess the intrinsic character­
istic of «payability, but also to those which,
although not possessing that characteristic,
are the subject of a contractual agreement to
repay the funds paid.
It is clear from Directives 77/780 and 89/646
that the protection of savings constitutes one
of the objectives of the measures taken to
coordinate credit institutions. According to
the fourth recital in the preamble to the First
Directive 77/780, those measures must apply
to all credit institutions. The fifth recital adds
that their scope should therefore be as broad
as possible, covering all institutions whose
business is to receive repayable funds from
the public whether in the form of deposits or
in other forms such as the continuing issue of
bonds and other comparable securities.
I-856