EN ECB-P UBLIC  
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 26 July 2012 
on State guarantees 
(CON/2012/60) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
On 6 July 2012 the European Central Bank (ECB) recei ved a request from the Governor of the Banco de 
España, on behalf of the Spanish Deputy Minister  for Economic Affairs and Competitiveness, for an 
opinion on the royal decree-law 21/2012, of 13 July, on liquidity measures in the public administration and in the financial sector
1; its first final provision amended Artic le 52(2)(b) and (c) of Law 2/2012 of 29 
June 2012 on the State General Budget for 2012, on State guarantees2 (hereinafter the ‘draft RDL’).  
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 on the third and sixth 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 provisions3, as the draft provisions relate to the Banco de España and to rules 
applicable to financial institutions that materially  influence the stability of financial institutions and 
markets. In accordance with the firs t 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 RDL 
The draft RDL lays down the conditions for the St ate guarantees, the eligib ility of institutions, the 
applicable fees and the requesting and granting pro cedures. It applies to credit institutions with a 
registered office in Spain which the Banco de España  considers solvent but to have temporary liquidity 
problems. 
The eligible issues are new issues of bonds and obligations. The securities may be issued until 15 
December 2012. The draft RDL does not mention the type of securities, maturity, interest rate or 
minimum amount of issue.  
On granting the guarantee, a fee of 0.5% of the guaranteed amount may be charged. In addition, a fee 
applies to every guaranteed issue of securities. This  fee will be calculated in following European 
Commission criteria
4. The maximum amount of the State guarantees is EUR 55 000 million. 
                                                 
1  Boletín Oficial del Estado,  14.7.2012, p. 50519. 
2  Boletín Oficial del Estado,  30.4.2012, p. 46432. 
3  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
4  See Communication from the Commission on the application, from 1 January 2012, of State aid rules to support 
measures in favour of banks in the context of the financial crisis (OJ C 356, 6.12.2011, p. 7). 
ECB-P UBLIC  
2 2. General observations  
The consultation request was submitted on 5 July 2012,  and the consulting authority requested the ECB to 
consider the consultation as a matter of urgency, wit hout however setting a time limit. On 13 July 2012, 
the draft RDL was adopted and published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado . In this context, the ECB 
reminds the Spanish authorities that, according to Article 4 of Decision 98/415/EC, the ECB must be 
consulted at an appropriate stage enabling the author ity initiating the draft legislative provision to take 
into consideration the ECB’s opinion before taking its decision on the substance. 
 3. Pricing  
The ECB welcomes that Article 52bis(4) of the dr aft RDL specifies that guarantee fees applied to 
financial institutions benefiting from the State guarant ees will be in line with the above-mentioned criteria 
adopted by the Commission. The ECB reiterates its vi ew that coordination of the duration of national 
financial support schemes across the Union is of crucia l importance to ensure a level playing field. In 
addition, the ECB notes the need for national s upport measures to be temporary in nature. 
 4.  Relationship with the single monetary policy  According to Article 52bis(1) of the draft RDL, only bank bonds (‘ obligaciones ’ and ‘ bonos ’) may be 
guaranteed. The ECB understands that in terbank deposits will not be guarant eed. This is in line with the 
ECB’s previous opinions
5, whereby the extension of State guara ntees to interbank deposits should be 
avoided, as it could entail a substantial distortion in  the various national segments of the euro area money 
market by potentially increasing s hort-term debt issuance activity across Member States and therefore 
impairing the implementation of the single monetary policy. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 26 July 2012.  
[signed] 
 
The Vice-President of the ECB 
Vítor CONSTÂNCIO 
                                                 
5  Opinion CON/2008/50, paragraph 3.2,  Opinion CON/2009/12, paragraph 3.3.2,  Opinion CON/2009/49, paragraph 3.9 
and Opinion CON/2009/73, paragraph 3.1.