Text proposed by the Commission Amendments proposed by the ECB (1)

Amendment 1

Article 2(2)

‘2. The Commission may adopt, by means of delegated acts in accordance with Articles 7, 8 and 9, amendments to the ESA 2010 methodology which are intended to specify and improve its content provided that they do not change its underlying concepts, do not require additional resources for their implementation and do not cause an increase in own resources.’ ‘2. The Commission may adopt, by means of delegated acts in accordance with Articles 7, 8 and 9, amendments to the ESA 2010 methodology which are intended to specify and improve its content provided that they do not change its underlying concepts, do not require additional resources for their implementation and do not cause an increase in own resources. The Commission shall prepare draft delegated acts in close cooperation with the European Central Bank.’

Explanation The legal basis for the adoption of the proposed regulation is Article 338(1) of the Treaty, which expressly clarifies that the adoption of measures under Article 338(1) is ‘without prejudice to Article 5 of the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank’ (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’). In turn, Article 5.3 of the Statute of the ESCB provides that the ECB ‘shall contribute to the harmonisation, where necessary, of the rules and practices governing the collection, compilation and distribution of statistics in the areas within its fields of competence’. Against the background of these specific Treaty provisions, the Commission, when exercising its delegated powers under the proposed regulation, should prepare the draft delegated acts in close cooperation with the ECB so as to ensure, inter alia, the consistency and quality of the data and minimising the reporting burden.

Amendment 2

Paragraph 2.21. of Annex A

‘2.21. A holding company that simply owns the assets of subsidiaries is one example of a captive financial institution. Other units that are also treated as captive financial institutions are units with the characteristics of SPEs as described above including investment and pension funds and units used for holding and managing wealth for individuals or families, holding assets for securitisation, issuing debt securities on behalf of related companies (such a company may be called a conduit), securitisation vehicles and to carry out other financial functions.’ ‘2.21. A holding company that simply owns the assets of subsidiaries is one example of a captive financial institution. Other units that are also treated as captive financial institutions are units with the characteristics of SPEs as described above including investment and pension funds and units used for holding and managing wealth for individuals or families, issuing debt securities on behalf of related companies (such a company may be called a conduit), and to carry out other financial functions.’

Explanation Financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions in any form cannot be treated as akin to captive financial institutions — in particular, they are not consolidated with the originator, irrespective of ‘independence’ criteria. They are classified as other financial intermediaries (S.125). See Article 1 of Regulation ECB/2008/30 of 19 December 2008 concerning the assets and liabilities of financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions (2).

Amendment 3

Paragraph 2.75. of Annex A

‘2.75. Definition: The subsector deposit-taking corporations except the central bank (S.122) includes all financial corporations and quasi-corporations, except those classified in the central bank and in the MMF subsectors, which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and whose business is to receive deposits from institutional units, and, for their own account, to grant loans and/or to make investments in securities.’ ‘2.75. Definition: The subsector deposit-taking corporations except the central bank (S.122) includes all financial corporations and quasi-corporations, except those classified in the central bank and in the MMF subsectors, which are principally engaged in financial intermediation and whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from institutional units other than MFIs, and, for their own account, to grant loans and/or to make investments in securities.’

Explanation The text needs to be aligned with the definition of ‘other MFIs’ in Article 1 of Regulation ECB/2008/32 of 19 December 2008 concerning the balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (Recast) (3). Similar wording is also included in the SNA 2008.

Amendment 4

Paragraph 2.90. of Annex A

‘2.90. Definition: Financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions (FVC) are undertakings carrying out securitisation transactions. FVC that satisfy the criteria of an institutional unit are classified in S.125, otherwise they are treated as an integral part of the parent.’ ‘2.90. Definition: Financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions (FVC) are undertakings carrying out securitisation transactions. ’

Explanation FVCs should be treated as separate institutional units independently of criteria such as ‘degree of independence from its parent’ (see paragraph 2.22). See Article 1 of Regulation ECB/2008/30.

Amendment 5

Paragraph 5.108. of Annex A

‘5.108. It is essential to establish … classified as captive financial institutions.’

Explanation This paragraph should be deleted since it is not consistent with the definitions and criteria applicable to securitisation vehicles. Its application could result in a consolidation of resident vehicles with resident ‘parent’ units, given that securitisation vehicles typically do not meet the proposed criteria of bearing market and credit risk (see also amendment 4).

Amendment 6

Paragraph 5.111. of Annex A

‘5.111. Covered bonds are debt securities issued by a financial corporation, or fully guaranteed by a financial corporation. In case of default of the issuing or guarantor financial corporation, bond holders have a priority claim on the cover pool, in addition to their ordinary claim on the financial corporation.’ ‘5.111. Covered bonds are debt securities issued by a financial corporation, or fully guaranteed by a financial corporation. In case of default of the issuing or guarantor financial corporation, bond holders have a priority claim on the cover pool, in addition to their ordinary claim on the financial corporation. Covered bonds are different from asset-backed securities issued in a securitisation in that the issuer/owner of the assets assumes an unconditional obligation to repay principal and interest irrespective of the performance of the assets. The assets function simply as collateral pledged for the benefit of the bondholders in case those obligations are not fulfilled.’

Explanation Without explaining the difference between covered bonds and asset-backed securities, it is unclear why the securitisation section refers to covered bonds. Alternatively, any reference to covered bonds could be deleted, since covered bonds are not linked to securitisation.

Amendment 7

Transmission Programme of National Accounts Data Overview of the tables (Annex B) Third column ‘Deadline t + months (days where specified)’ of Tables 2, 801, 27, 28 and new footnote

2/Main aggregates general government — annual/3/9 2/Main aggregates general government — annual/85 days (4)/85 days in the third quarter

801/Non-financial accounts by sector — quarterly/85 days 801/Non-financial accounts by sector — quarterly/85 days (4)

27/Financial accounts for general government — quarterly/85 days 27/Financial accounts for general government — quarterly/85 days (4)

28/Government debt — quarterly/3 28/Government debt — quarterly/85 days (4)

Explanation The ECOFIN Council endorsed in September 2000 the EMU Action Plan on Statistical Requirements and set the target time for quarterly integrated euro area accounts by institutional sector at t+90 days following the reference quarter to meet the ECB’s monetary policy needs. This implied that Eurostat and the ECB would have to collect the respective national data at t+82 days. Due to the envisaged schedule for ECB Governing Council meetings in 2015 and 2016, a reduction in the time lag to t+85 would suffice for 2015 to 2016. Accordingly, the ECB supports advancing the reporting deadlines for the quarterly sector accounts under the ESA transmission programme to t+85 days by 2014, aiming at t+82 days by 2017 to support the compilation of full quarterly integrated euro area accounts at t+90 days. Furthermore, the ECB favours a consistent transmission deadline for all quarterly and annual national data regarding general government, implying a synchronisation of quarterly data on general government to the timeliness targets set for Table 801, affecting also Tables 27 and 28, and, similarly, the reporting deadlines for Table 2 and the excessive deficit procedure (EDP) data. Therefore, the ECB supports advancing the reporting deadlines for the quarterly government accounts under the ESA transmission programme and the EDP data to t+85 by 2014 and aiming at t+82 by 2017 to support the compilation of full quarterly integrated euro area accounts at t+90.

Amendment 8

End of Table 2 of Annex B — Main aggregates of general government

EDP_D.41 Interest including flows on swaps and FRAs (1) (4) S.13, S.1311, S.1312, S.1313, S.1314 EDP_B.9 Net lending (+)/Net borrowing (–) under the Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) (4) S.13, S.1311, S.1312, S.1313, S.1314 D.41 Interest (1) S.13, S.1311, S.1312, S.1313, S.1314 B.9 Net lending (+)/Net borrowing (–) S.13, S.1311, S.1312, S.1313, S.1314

Explanation Annex A of the proposed regulation no longer defines EDP_D.41 and EDP_B.9. This implies that all references to these two variables should be eliminated from Table 2 in Annex B. This also refers to footnote 4 of Table 2.

Amendment 9

End of Column S.13 in Table 801 — Non-financial accounts by sector — quarterly

OTE Total general government expenditure/x OTE Total general government expenditure/x

OTR Total general government revenue/x OTR Total general government revenue/x

EMH Hours worked/x

EMP Persons employed/x