EN ECB-PUBLIC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 7 September 2011 
on Italy’s ratification of an Amendment to the Ar ticles of Agreement of the International Monetary 
Fund and increase in quota  
(CON/2011/68) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 10 August 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Italian Ministry of 
Economic Affairs and Finance for an opinion on a draf t law regarding the ratification of an Amendment 
to the Articles of Agreement (herei nafter the ‘Amendment’) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 
and the increase of Italy’s quota with the IMF (the ‘draft law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the third indent  of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions1, as the draft law relates to the Banca d’It alia. In accordance with the first sentence 
of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of th e European Central Bank, the Governing Council has 
adopted this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
1.1 On 15 December 2010, the IMF Board of Governors adopted Resolution No 66-2 on the 
‘Fourteenth General Review of Quotas and Re form of the Executive Board’, proposing an 
amendment to the Articles of Agreement. The Am endment contains two sets of provisions. The 
first set provides that all the Executive Director s on the IMF Executive Board will be elected by 
IMF member countries. The second set of provisions concerns a general review of quotas, after which the increase in quotas will become ef fective on fulfilment of specific conditions
2. As a 
consequence of the increase in quotas, a review  of the ‘New Arrangements to Borrow’ (NAB) 
credit arrangements will take place, with the possibility for the NAB to roll back. 
1.2 Under Italian law3, the ratification of international agreem ents involving public expenditure and 
amendments to legislation must be authorised by  a law approved by the Parliament. Articles 1 and 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  The specific conditions to be fulfilled are as follows: (i ) members with at least 70% of the total quotas giving written 
consent to their increase in quota; (ii) the Amendment concer ning the new structure of the IMF Executive Board entering 
into force; (iii) the Amendment to the Articles of Agr eement approved under IMF Board of Governors Resolution No 63-
2 entering into force 
3  Article 80 of the Italian Constitution. 
ECB-PUBLIC 
2 2 of the draft law provide for the authorisation of  the Amendment ratification and its incorporation 
into Italian law. Articles 3 and 4 of the draft la w authorise the Government to pay up the increase in 
Italy’s quota by requesting the Banca d’Italia to perform this transaction. In particular, following 
the increase of the total quotas deci ded by the IMF Board of Governors, the draft law authorises the 
Ministry to pay up, by having recourse to the Banca d’Italia, the proposed increase in Italy’s IMF quota from SDR 7 882.3 million to SDR 15 070 million. Article 5 of the draft law refers to an 
agreement between the Ministry and the Banca d’Italia
4 on their relationship in connection with 
Italy’s participation in the IMF. Article 6 provid es for the necessary means to cover the expenses 
deriving from the payment. 
2. General observations  2.1 Article 4 of the draft law authorises the Ministry to pay the increase in the quota, by requesting the 
Banca d’Italia to perform this transaction. The E CB notes that the wording of this Article changed 
during the course of the parliamentary procedure to include an obligation for the Ministry to provide guarantees to the Banca d’Italia covering an y risk connected to the payments to the IMF 
that the Banca d’Italia carries out on behalf of the Italian Government regarding the quota increase. 
The ECB understands that the new wording is mean t to protect the Banca d’Italia from any risk 
connected to such payments. 
2.2 Several ECB Opinions
5 have noted that the tasks performed by a national central bank must 
comply with the monetary financing prohibi tion under Article 123 of the Treaty and Council 
Regulation (EC) No 3603/93 of 13 December 1993 speci fying definitions for the application of the 
prohibitions referred to in Articles 104 and 104b(1) of the Treaty6. Pursuant to Article 7 of 
Regulation (EC) No 3603/93, the financing by na tional central banks of obligations falling upon 
the public sector vis-à-vis the IMF is not regarded as a credit facility within the meaning of Article 
123 of the Treaty. Therefore, the ECB notes that an y possible payment by the Banca d’Italia of the 
proposed increase in Italy’s IMF quota complies with  Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 3603/93 and 
does not infringe the monetary financing prohibition. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 7 September 2011. 
[signed] 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
4  Agreement of 10 December 2007, approved and executed by Ministerial Decree No 127093 of 28 December 2008. 
5  See ECB Opinions CON/1997/16, CON/2005/29, CON/2009/5, CON/200 9/33, CON/2009/35, CON/2009/41, 
CON/2009/100, CON/2010/13, CON/2010/ 15, CON/2010/22, CON/2010/40, CON/2010/74, CON/2011/10. All 
Opinions are availabl e on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
6  OJ L 332, 31.12.1993, p. 1.