EN ECB-PUBLIC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 28 June 2011  
on cross-border transactions 
(CON/2011/54) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 16 May 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Spanish State Secretary 
for Economic Affairs for an opinion on a draft royal decree amending Royal Decree 1816/1991 on cross-border financial transactions and on a draft minist erial order amending the order implementing Royal 
Decree 1816/1991 (hereinafter collectivel y referred to as 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 and f ourth 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 provisions
1, as the draft law relates to the Banco de España and to the 
collection, compilation and distribution of monetary, financial, banking, payment systems and balance of 
payment statistics. 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 
The draft law eliminates the obligation for payment service providers registered with the Banco de 
España to report information on cr oss-border transactions that they do not immediately and automatically 
have at their disposal. More specifically, payment ser vice providers registered with the Banco de España 
will only be required to report to the competent author ities and the Banco de España information they can 
automatically collect without affecting the direct pr ocessing of payments, in respect of: (a) cross-border 
charges and payments within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 924/2009 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council of 16 September 2009 on cross-borde r payments in the Community and repealing 
Regulation (EC) No 2560/2001
2, ordered or received by a reside nt, and involving a payment service 
provider from another Member State; and (b) credits and debits to accounts of non-resident clients. The 
Banco de España will collect the remainder of the information on cross-border transactions necessary for 
administrative or statistical purposes from those invol ved in such transactions. The new reporting system 
for cross-border transactions will co-exist with the current one until the end of 2013. This transitional 
period is considered necessary for payment service prov iders to make adjustments so that the relevant 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  OJ L 266, 9.10.2009, p. 11. 
ECB-PUBLIC 
2 data may be obtained automatically and for those involv ed in cross-border transactions to adapt to survey 
and direct collection procedures.  
 2. General observations The ECB welcomes the draft law as a positive developm ent, as it facilitates the implementation of the 
single euro payments area (SEPA) and it is also in  line with the ECB’s position on cross-border payments 
in the Union
3. As stated in Opinion CON/2009/1, balance of  payments reporting systems mainly based on 
payments data cannot be maintained as they are in  respect of payments in euro within the Union. 
Reforming such systems may require substantially lowering reporting obligations for payment service 
providers, while at the same time increasing the re porting burden on other econom ic agents, which should 
be limited to the extent possible (e.g. by applying  proper survey and sampling techniques). Statistical 
reporting requirements that have no impact on the direct processing of SEPA payments by payment 
service providers and can be fully automated by them should not be subject to exemption thresholds. In 
addition, the reform of balance of  payments reporting systems should ensure that such statistics can 
continue to be compiled with the high reliability, frequency and timeliness required for ECB monetary 
policy-making in Guideline ECB/2004/15 of 16 July 2004 on the statistical reporting requirements of the 
European Central Bank in the field of balance of  payments and international investment position 
statistics, and the international reserves template4.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 28 June 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
3  See paragraphs 1.2 and 1.6 of Opinion CON/2009/1. All ECB opinions ar e published on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
4  OJ L 354, 30.11.2004, p. 34.