OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
of 17 July 1998
at the request of the Banque Nationale de Belgique under Article 109f (6) of the Treaty
establishing the European Community (the Trea ty) and Article 5.3 of the Statute of the EMI
on draft regulations laying down the mode of enforcement of certain provi sions contained in the
Royal Decree of 13 April 1997 on the recording of foreign payments of the Belgium-
Luxembourg Economic Union and of the cu rrent account of the Kingdom of Belgium
CON/98/28
1. On 20 May 1998, the European Monetary Institute (h ereinafter referred to as the EMI) received
a request from the Banque Nationale de Belgique  for an opinion on a draf t Ministerial Decision
(the draft Ministerial Decision) enacting Regu lations of the Belgian Luxembourg Institute of
Exchange (the proposed Regulations) defining the implementation modalities of certainprovisions of the Royal Decree of 13 April 1997 re garding the recording of external payments of
the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union and the current account of the Kingdom of Belgium. 
2. In accordance with Article 109l (2) of the Treaty, the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred
to as the ECB) has taken over the advisory functions of the EMI which has gone into liquidationupon the establishment of the ECB on 1 June 1998. The ECBs competence to deliver an opinion
is based on Article 1.1, third indent, of the Council Decision (93/717/EC ) of 22 November 1993 on
the consultation of the EMI by the authorities of th e Member States on draft legislative provisions.
3. The main aim of the draft Ministerial Decision is to update the existing Regulations of the Belgian
Luxembourg Institute of Exchange regarding the co llection of the statistical information necessary
for the production of the Balance of Payments of the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union and
the current account of Belgium.
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4. The ECB welcomes the draft Ministerial Deci sion since the definitions and classification
principles given in the proposed Regulations ar e compliant with the IMF Balance of Payments
Manual (5th edition) released in October 1993 and the harmonisation proposals defined by the
EMI. This relates in particular to the re sidence criterion, the principles underlying the
classification of the resident entities, and the br eakdown by instruments. At the same time, the
ECB would put forward the followi ng important technical points.
5. In Regulation B3, the definitions for a paiement avec létranger and for the pays de la
contrepartie non résidente might be confusing. It is understood that the reporting of payments
between residents, which are neither to be comp iled within the Balance of Payments nor in the
International Investment Position, may be request ed for checking purposes. Nonetheless, it should
be stressed that the corresponding data must be  clearly isolated from those recorded in the
statistics (see neutral codes in Annex 1 to proposed Regulation B3).
6. In Annex 1 of proposed regulation B3, options are included amongst Portfolio Investment, while
other derivatives are recorded in another chapte r, which is not fully compliant with the agreed
harmonisation proposals on derivatives  and might also be confusing.
7. The classification of the Monetary Financial Ins titutions (hereinafter referred to as MFIs) is
important not only due to their role in the Belg ian collection system, but also for the sectoral
breakdown requested for the quarterly and annual Balance of Payments and for the annualInternational Investment Position. The classification must comply with the List of MFIs which was
released by the EMI in April 1998 and will be regularly updated. The sectoral breakdown(including the MFIs) applies to Portfolio Inve stment and Other Investment in the Financial
Account. Moreover, the MU/non-MU split for Di rect Investment abroad and for Portfolio
Investment (assets and liabilities) is also a major requirement for the ECBs monthly key items.The ECB is pleased to note that the economic classification given in Annex 1 to the proposed
Regulation B3 appears to be compliant with  both requirements on s ectoral breakdown and
MU/non-MU split.
8. The ECB is pleased to note that the timeliness re quired (proposed Regulation B1, article 5 para 7,
B2 article 4 para 1, B4 article 5, B5 article 5) is fully compliant with the d eadlines described in the
EMI report entitled Statistical Requirements for Stage Three of Monetary Union 
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Implementation Package (July 1996) for monthly, quarterly and annual Balance of Payments as
well as for the annual International Investment Position.
9.  Finally, the ECB is pleased to note that the pr oposed Regulation B7 allows adequate verification
and enforcement.
For the President of the ECB
[signed]
Christian Noyer
Vice-President