EN ECB -PUBLIC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK  
of 24 August  2012  
on reporting requirements for cross- border service transactions  
(CON/2012/ 67) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 1 August 2012,  the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Oesterreichische  
Nationalbank (OeNB) for an opinion on a balance of payments reporting r egulation of the OeNB which 
governs  the reporting of cross -border service transactions ( hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’ ). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on A rticle 1 27(4) and Article 282 (5) of the Treaty 
on the Functioning of the European Union as well as the third and fourth  indent of Article  2(1) of Council 
Decision 98/415/EC of 29  June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national 
autho rities regarding draft legislative provisions1, as the draft regulation  relates to the OeNB and the 
collection of balance of payments 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 regulation  
1.1 The draft regulation will replace the current balance of payments regulation ( ZABIL 1/20092) of 
the OeNB which governs the reporting of cross -border service transactio ns. The draft regulation 
also implements Article 6 of the  Law on exchange  controls 2004, under which the OeNB is 
responsible for compiling the Austrian balance of payments, the international investment position 
statistics, the direct investment statistics and all statistics regarding cross- border transactions and 
positions in the context of the abovementioned statistics based on EU regulations. The draft 
regulation is necessary owing to  amendments  under Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 amending 
Regulation (EC) N o 184/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community 
statistics concerning balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investments, as regards the  update of data requirements and definitions
3. Although not expli citly 
mentioned in the OeNB request accompanying the draft regulation, the ECB understands that amendments are also required on the basis of standards set out in Guideline ECB/2011/23 of 9 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p.  42.  
2  Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung  No 242, 10.12.2008 , p. 32.  
3  OJ L 166, 27.6.2012, p. 22.  
ECB -PUBLIC 
2 December 2011 on the statistical reporting requirements of the European Central Bank in the field 
of external statistics4. 
1.2 Due to enhanced OeNB access to the VAT Information Exchange System , the draft regulation will 
also raise the thresholds for  the reporting of transactions on all types of cross- border business 
activity pertaining to services, by reporting agents in the non- financial corporate sector to a uniform 
level of EUR 500  000.  
1.3 Additionally, some minor technical amendments are made in the draft regulation. R eferences and 
quotes shall reflect changes in the  legal framework, reporting channels shall be adapted to reflect 
widespread IT use, reporting obligations shall be re defined , the conceptual reporting framework 
shall be harmonized and the reporting requirements applying to credit institutions and insuranc e 
companies shall be specified . The draft regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 2013. 
 
2. General observation  
In accordance with Article 14.3 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European 
Central Bank (hereinafter the ‘S tatute of the ESCB’) , national central banks  must act in accordance with 
the guidelines of the ECB. The ECB generally welcomes th e draft regulation , which will ensur e 
consistency with  the reporting requirements und er Guideline ECB/2011/23 following  the bas ic principles 
of the ECB Statis tics Quality Framework5. The main purpose of euro area balance of payments and 
international investment position statistics is to support the ECB’s monetary policy and other Eurosystem 
tasks. Moreover , as stated in the Eurosy stem’s mission statement6, accountability, transparency and good 
governance are important values support ing the integrity of the statistical functions defined by Article 5 
of the Statute of the  ESCB . 
 
3. Specific observations  
3.1 The ECB welcomes the OeNB’ s enhanced access to existing administrative information which has 
made necessary the removal of specific7 thresholds on cross -border service transactions in the draft 
regulation. The ECB notes that while these changes imply a more streamlined collection p rocedure, 
simplified guidelines and a reduced response burden for data compilers, it should be ensured that 
sufficiently precise data for the production of euro area cross- border statistics is maintained8. 
3.2 The ECB suggests the inclusion of the term ‘Activities of Holding Companies’ as sub -division 64.2 
in the table providing the list of relevant ‘Economic Activities’ in Section 1.6, as this type of activity is referred to in Sections 2 and 3 of the draft regulation.   
                                                 
4  OJ l 65,  3.3.2012, p. 1.  
5  Available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu . 
6  Available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu . 
7  Thresholds were formerly differentiated by type of sector and whether they pertained  to imports or exports.  
8  See paragraph  7(i) of Opinion CON/2005/23.  All ECB o pinions are a vailable on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu . 
ECB -PUBLIC 
3 3.3 As data on cross- border service s will continue to be collected on a quarterly and/or annual basis, 
the following ECB stance still applies:  the OeNB remains responsible for providing the ECB with 
aggregated data for the euro area monthly balance of payments statistics. This data must  meet the 
quality standards set out in Guideline ECB/2011/239.  
3.4 In the Appendix to the draft regulation, the ECB suggests that the four sub- items10 listed  under the 
heading ‘7. Financial Services’ are clarified further, so  that a direct connection can be m ade with 
the definitions for ‘Financial Services’ in Section 2.7 of Annex II to  Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 
and with the relevant statistical indicators on ‘Financial Services’, as required in Table 2 of 
Annex II to  Guideline ECB/2011/23.  
 
This opinion wi ll be published on the ECB’s w ebsite.  
  
Done at Frankfurt am Main,  24 August 2012 . 
 
[signed]  
 
The President of the ECB  
Mario DRAGHI  
                                                 
9  See paragraph 7(ii) of Opinion CON/2005/23 on a previous version of the draft regulation on the reporting of cross -
border services (ZABIL 1/2005) . Opinion CON/2005/23 refers to Guideline ECB/2004/15,  which has  subsequently  been 
replaced by Guideline ECB/2011/23.  
10  The four sub-headings are: 7.1: Fees for securities lending and gold lending; 7.2: Gross transaction volume from 
securities sales to non -resident counterparties; 7.3: Gross transaction volume from securities purchases from non-resident 
counterparties; and 7.4: Other financial services.