EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 2 November 2004 
at the request of Magyar Nemzeti Bank 
on a draft regulation on the scope of information to be supplied to the central bank’s information 
system and on the method and time limits for data supply 
(CON/2004/33) 
 1. On 5 October 2004, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Magyar Nemzeti 
Bank (MNB) for an opinion on a draft regulation on the scope, method and time limits for information to be supplied to the central bank’ s information system (h ereinafter the ‘draft 
regulation’). 
2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the fourth indent of Article 2(1) of 
Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the c onsultation of the European Central Bank by 
national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions
1, as the draft regulation relates to the 
collection of statistical information. In accordan ce 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. 
3. The draft regulation is intended to replace MNB Decree No 3/2003 (PK.16) on the information to 
be supplied to the central bank’s informati on system. The primary purpose is to extend to 
Hungarian branches of financial institutions and investment enterprises with headquarters outside 
Hungary the obligation to provide information to MNB. The proposed regulation relates to MNB’s 
information system, which collects the statistical in formation necessary for MNB to fulfil its tasks.  
4. Article 5.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank provides that the national central banks (NCBs ) shall carry out, to the extent possible, the 
tasks described in Article 5.1, i. e. the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) tasks defined by 
the Treaty establishing the European Community and th e Statute. Article 43.1 of the Statute implies 
that legal instruments adopted by the ECB for the fulfilment of its statis tical reporting requirements 
do not confer any rights or impose any obligations  on the non-participating Member States. At the 
same time, Article 47.2 of the Statute provides that the ECB’s General Council (of which MNB’s 
Governor is a member) must contribute to the collec tion of statistical information as referred to in 
Article 5 of the Statute.  
                                                      
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2 5. Article 10 of the Treaty requires that ‘Member St ates shall take all appr opriate measures ... to 
ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty.’ More specifically, Article 4 of 
Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 on the collection of statistical information by the European 
Central Bank2 requires all Member States to ‘organise th emselves in the field of statistics … and 
fully cooperate with the ESCB in order to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations arising out of 
Article 5 of the Statute’. 
6. Recital 17 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 indicates that while it is recognised that the statistical 
information needed to fulfil the ECB’s statisti cal reporting requirements is not the same for the 
participating as for the non-participating Member St ates, Article 5 of the Statute applies to both 
participating and non-participating Me mber States; this fact, together with Article 10 of the Treaty, 
implies an obligation to design and implement at the national level all the measures that Member 
States consider appropriate in order to carry out th e collection of the statistical information needed 
to fulfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirement s and the timely preparations in the field of 
statistics in order for them to become participating Member States. 
7. On the basis of the above, the ECB welcomes MNB’s initiative to adopt a regulation on the 
collection of statistical information. The ECB notes that the NCBs’ reporting provisions are an indispensable component of the national statisti cal collection systems. These national reporting 
provisions may differ to varying degrees between each Member State, depending on many national 
and external factors. As a result, the ECB’s comme nts on them are mainly of a general nature and 
intend to draw attention to aspects that may be made  more explicit in the proposed draft regulation. 
8. The ECB welcomes the core objective of the amendmen ts to be introduced by the draft regulation, 
which is to impose the obligation to provide information to MNB on Hungarian branches of 
financial institutions and investment enterprises with headquarters outsi de Hungary. This is 
essential in order to obtain the accurate statistical  information necessary for the fulfilment of 
MNB’s tasks. 
9. The ECB concludes that the reporting scheme intended to be introduced by the draft regulation, as 
far as reporting agents residing in Hungary are concerned, appears to cover the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements for the abovementioned instit utions located in the eu ro area. Furthermore, 
the draft regulation appears to be complete  and consistent with these requirements.  
10. At the same time, it is the task primarily of the NCBs to assess whether any proposed detailed 
reporting instructions and collection methods at natio nal level are the most efficient, effective and 
the least burdensome for the reporting agents concerned.  
11. This opinion does not prejudice any later assess ment by the ECB of the Hungarian reporting 
scheme and the statistical information reported to it under the ECB’s statistical reporting 
requirements. 
                                                     
 
2  OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 
3 12. The ECB confirms that it has no objection to the competent national authorities making this 
opinion publicly available at their discretion. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website 
six months after the date of its adoption. 
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 2 November 2004. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET