EN Official Journal of the European Union L 166/33

GUIDELINE OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 12 March 2014

amending Guideline ECB/2011/14 on monetary policy instruments and procedures of the Eurosystem

(ECB/2014/10)

(2014/329/EU)

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular the first indent of Article 127(2) thereof,

Having regard to the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, and in particular the first indent of Article 3.1, Article 12.1, Article 14.3 and Article 18.2 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Achieving a single monetary policy entails defining the instruments and procedures to be used by the Eurosystem, consisting of the national central banks of Member States whose currency is the euro (hereinafter the ‘NCBs’) and the European Central Bank (ECB), in order to implement such a policy in a uniform manner.

(2) The ECB has the authority to establish the necessary guidelines to implement the Eurosystem's monetary policy and the NCBs have an obligation to act in accordance with such guidelines.

(3) Pursuant to Article 18.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, the ECB and the NCBs may conduct credit operations with credit institutions and other market participants, with lending being based on adequate collateral. The conditions under which the ECB and the NCBs stand ready to enter into credit operations, including the criteria determining the eligibility of collateral for the purposes of such operations, are laid down in Annex I to Guideline ECB/2011/14 (1), as well as Decision ECB/2013/6 (2) and Decision ECB/2013/35 (3).

(4) Guideline ECB/2011/14 should be amended to reflect changes to the Eurosystem's collateral framework relating to: (a) the extension of loan-level reporting requirements to asset-backed securities backed by credit card receivables. This is intended to preserve their eligibility as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations in the light of the homogeneity requirement for the cash-flow generating assets backing the asset-backed securities laid down in the penultimate paragraph of Section 6.2.1.1 of Annex I to Guideline ECB/2011/14; and (b) the revision of the mapping of certain credit ratings in the context of the Eurosystem harmonised rating scale.

(5) Guideline ECB/2011/14 should also be amended to reflect changes due to the introduction of major improvements to the Eurosystem's correspondent central banking model (CCBM). First, it has been decided that the repatriation requirement, which required Eurosystem counterparties prior to mobilising assets as collateral for Eurosystem credit operations to transfer these assets to the respective issuer's securities settlement system (SSS), should be removed from 26 May 2014. As such, a new mobilisation channel combining the CCBM with links between SSSs would be created, whereby any SSS/eligible link may be used by any Eurosystem counterparty to mobilise eligible assets as Eurosystem collateral. Second, triparty collateral management services, as offered by triparty agents in the market, should be supported on a cross-border basis via the CCBM from 29 September 2014,

HAS ADOPTED THIS GUIDELINE:

Article 1

Amendments to Annex I

Annex I to Guideline ECB/2011/14 is amended in accordance with the Annex to this Guideline.

Article 2

Taking effect and implementation

1. This Guideline shall take effect on the day of its notification to the NCBs.

2. The NCBs shall take the necessary measures to comply with paragraphs 3, 8, 15 and 16 of the Annex to this Guideline and apply them from 1 April 2014. They shall notify the ECB of the texts and means relating to those measures by 24 March 2014 at the latest.

3. The NCBs shall take the necessary measures to comply with paragraphs 1, 2, 4 to 7 and 10 to 13 of the Annex to this Guideline and apply them from 26 May 2014. They shall notify the ECB of the texts and means relating to those measures by 24 March 2014 at the latest.

4. The NCBs shall take the necessary measures to comply with paragraphs 9 and 14 of the Annex to this Guideline and apply them from 29 September 2014. They shall notify the ECB of the texts and means relating to those measures by 24 March 2014 at the latest.

Article 3

Addressees

This Guideline is addressed to all Eurosystem central banks.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 12 March 2014. The President of the ECB Mario DRAGHI

(1) Guideline ECB/2011/14 of 20 September 2011 on monetary policy instruments and procedures of the Eurosystem (OJ L 331, 14.12.2011, p. 1).

(2) Decision ECB/2013/6 of 20 March 2013 on the rules concerning the use as collateral for Eurosystem monetary policy operations of own-use uncovered government-guaranteed bank bonds (OJ L 95, 5.4.2013, p. 22).

(3) Decision ECB/2013/35 of 26 September 2013 on additional measures relating to Eurosystem refinancing operations and eligibility of collateral (OJ L 301, 12.11.2013, p. 6).