EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 9 September 2010 
on amendments to the legal framework for the operation of Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego 
(CON/2010/70) 
 Introduction and legal basis
 
On 16 August 2010 the European Central Bank (ECB) re ceived a request from the Polish Parliament’s 
Sejm for an opinion on a draft law (hereinafter ‘the draft law’) amending the Law of 14 March 2003 on 
Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (hereinafter the ‘Law on BGK’)1.  
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 and si xth indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 
98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions2, as the draft law relates to Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP) and 
contains rules applicable to financial institutions insofar as they materially influence the stability of 
financial institutions and markets. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of 
Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.  
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 1.1 Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego (BGK) is th e only Polish credit institution established by 
legislation as a State bank
3. Its main activities include supporti ng the government’s socio-economic 
programmes, as well as local self-government and regional development projects. Within this 
scope, BGK provides banking services to public entities and several public funds established for special purposes, including those established to distribute Union funds. As a specific financial 
                                                 
1  Dz. U. of 2003, No 65, item 594. 
2  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
3  See Article 2(1) of the Law on BGK in conjunction with Article 1 of the Regulation of the President of Poland of 
30 May 1924 merging the State credit institutions into Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego ( Dziennik Ustaw  (Dz. U.) of 1924 
No 46, item 477). See also Article 46(1) of the Law on banking of 13 April 1960 (Dz. U. of 1960 No 20, item 121) 
together with Article 64(2) of the Law on banking of 12 June  1975 (Dz. U. of 1975 No 20, item 108) and Article 96(1)(1) 
of the Law on banking of 26 February 1982 (Dz. U. of 1982 No 7, item 56). See also Article 14(1) of the Law on banking 
of 29 August 1997 (consolidated text: Dz. U. of 2002 No  72, item 665) (hereinafter the ‘Law on banking’). See 
Regulation of the Minister for the State Treasury of 11 Ma y 2010 laying down the articles of incorporation for Bank 
Gospodarstwa Krajowego (Dz. U. of 2010 No 81, item 535). 
2 institution created for public purposes, BGK is exempted from Directive 2006/48/EC of 
14 June 2006 relating to the ta king up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (recast)4. 
1.2 According to the draft law’s explanatory memorandum5, one of the main aims of the draft law is to 
reduce the cost of borrowing by BGK on the financ ial markets. The draft law intends to improve 
BGK’s credit rating up to a level si milar to the rating of Poland’s s overeign debt. This effect would 
be achieved by introducing an explicit provision on the liability of the State Treasury for BGK’s 
debts in case of BGK’s liquidation6. Moreover, the draft law also significantly relaxes the rules on 
transfers of funds between BGK and the State Trea sury, by introducing (i) a general obligation for 
the Minister for public finance to provide BGK with  own funds sufficient to carry out its statutory 
tasks7, and (ii) the possibility of reducing BGK’s statutory funds if they exceed the level necessary 
to comply with supervisory requirements and, co nsequently, resulting in a transfer to the State 
budget8. The draft law aims also to facilitate the refinancing of BGK’s real estate activities, 
including in particular its support of government  housing programmes, by creating a legal basis for 
issuance by BGK of mortgage-backed securities9. The draft law also streamlines and clarifies Law 
on BGK. 
1.3 As a result of the draft law, BGK will also b ecome the provider of core banking services to the 
State budget and State budget entities. State bank accounts, including those for the State budget, 
State budget entities and tax authorities, are curren tly operated by NBP which maintains a legal 
monopoly on providing core banking services to th e State until Poland’s adoption of the euro10. 
The draft law removes this limitation11, allowing the Minister for Finance to select either NBP or 
BGK as a provider of banking services. After the entr y into force of the draft law, NBP would, if 
selected, therefore be allowed12 - but no longer legally required - to fulfil the function of fiscal 
agent of the State. 
 2. General observations  In view of the envisaged strengthening of BGK’ s market position resulting from the draft law expressly 
introducing State liability for BGK’s obligations, the ECB notes its previous observations on the need to 
                                                 
4  OJ L 177, 30.6.2006, p. 1. See Article 2. 
5  Not yet available on Sejm’s website.  
6  Article 1(2) of the draft law, ame nding Article 3(4) of the Law on BGK. 
7  Article 1(2) of the draft law, ame nding Article 3(3) of the Law on BGK. 
8  Article 1(7) of the draft law, inserting new Article 5c to the Law on BGK. 
9  Article 1(8) of the draft law, inserting new Article 6a to the Law on BGK. 
10  Resulting from Article 196(2) and (4) of the Law of 27 A ugust 2009 on public finance (Dz. U. of 2009, No 157, item 
1240). 
11  Article 5 of the draft law, deleting Ar ticle 196(4) of the Law on public finance. 
12  Under Article 196(2) of the Law on public finance and Article 51(1)(2) of the Law of 29 August 1997 on Narodowy 
Bank Polski (consolidated text: Dz. U. of 2005, No 1, item 2).  
3 maintain a level playing field and to avoid und ue distortions of competition between financial 
institutions13.  
 3. Specific observations  3.1. The ECB understands that BGK may be a count erparty for NBP’s monetary policy operations, and 
that mortgage-backed securities issued by BGK may become eligible as collateral for the NBP’s 
monetary policy operations
14. The ECB reminds the Polish authorities that compliance with the 
monetary financing prohibition laid down in the Trea ty needs to be ensured. In this respect, Article 
123(2) of the Treaty lays down that publicly owned credit institutions shall be given the same treatment as private credit institutions insofar as part icipation in monetary policy operations of the 
central banks is concerned, whereas the prohibitio n contained in Article 123(1) of the Treaty 
against purchases in the primary market of securiti es issued by the public sector applies also to 
publicly owned credit institutions. Therefore, NBP may not purchase mortgage-backed securities 
issued by BGK in the primary market
15.  
3.2 Article 21.2 of the Statute of the European Syst em of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank (ESCB Statute) expressly recognises the provision by the ECB or the national central banks of fiscal agency services to the public sector, as it is a legitimate function traditionally performed by central banks
16. However, Article 21.2 of the ESCB Stat ute does not oblige the central banks to 
undertake any fiscal agency functions. In view here of, the ECB takes note of the possibility for the 
Minister of Finance to select BGK instead of th e NBP as provider of banking services to the State 
budget17. 
3.3 In view of the envisaged possibility of re ducing BGK’s statutory funds and transferring the 
difference to the State budget18, the ECB understands that sufficien t safeguards will be in place to 
ensure that such a transfer would not compro mise BGK’s compliance with banking supervisory 
requirements.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   
                                                 
13  See paragraph 2.2 of ECB Opinion CON/2009/22. All ECB opinions are available on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
14  As published and updated from time to  time on NBP’s website www.nbp.pl. 
15  See also in part paragraph 3.2 of ECB Opinion CON/2009/68. 
16  See Chapter 2 of the ECB Convergence Report of May 2010.  
17  Article 5 of the draft law, deleting Article 196(4) of th e Law of 27 August 2009 on public finance (Dz. U. of 2009, No 
157, item 1240).  
18  Article 5c of the Law on BGK, as ame nded by Article 1(7) of the draft law. 
4 Done at Frankfurt am Main, 9 September 2010. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET