EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 8 August 2007  
at the request of Banca Na ţională a României 
on a draft regulation concerning statistical reporting of assets and liabilities recorded  
on the balance sheet of non-banking financial institutions  
(CON/2007/24) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 12 July 2007 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Banca Na ţională a României 
(BNR) for an opinion on a draft regulation concer ning statistical reporting of assets and liabilities 
recorded on the balance sheet of non-banking financial institutions (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the fourth indent of Ar ticle 2(1) of Council Deci sion 98/415/EC of 29 June 
1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft legislative 
provisions1, as the draft regulation relates to the collection, compilation and distribution of monetary, 
financial and banking statistics. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of 
Procedure of the European Central Bank, th e Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1.
  Purpose of the draft regulation 
1.1 The draft regulation is aimed at aligning statisti cal reporting requirements in the field of money and 
banking statistics with Guideline ECB/2003/2 of 6 February 2003 concerning certain statistical 
reporting requirements of the European Central Bank and the procedures for reporting by the national central banks of statistical informati on in the field of money and banking statistics
2. 
Guideline ECB/2003/2 is one of the key legal inst ruments relating to the provision of monetary, 
financial institutions and markets statistics. The ECB is currently preparing a recast of Guideline 
ECB/2003/2 to make it more readable and user-friendly for its addressees and users.  
1.2  The draft regulation sets up a legal framework that will ensure the collection of statistical 
information necessary for analysing the credit acti vity of non-banking fina ncial institutions in 
Romania. In particular, the draft regulation re quires non-banking financial institutions that are 
registered in the General Register maintained by  BNR to report quarterly statistical data on assets 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  OJ L 241, 26.9.2003, p. 1.  
 
2 and liabilities recorded on their balance sheet. The draf t regulation is expected to enter into force on 
1 December 2007 so that statistical data relati ng to the financial year 2007 can be collected.  
 
2. General observations 2.1 Article 5.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank provides that ‘national central banks shall carry  out, to the extent possible, the tasks described 
in Article 5.1’, which are the tasks of the Europ ean System of Central Banks (ESCB) as defined by 
the Treaty and the Statute. Article 43.1 of the Statute implies that legal instruments adopted by the ECB for the fulfilment of its statistical reporting requirements do not confer any rights or impose 
any obligations on the non-participating Member States.  
2.2 At the same time, Article 47.2 of the Statute st ates that the ECB’s General Council is required to 
contribute to the collection of statistical informati on as referred to in Article 5 of the Statute. In 
addition, Article 10 of the Treaty requires Member  States to ‘take all appropriate measures ... to 
ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty’ and, more specifically, Article 4 of 
Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November  1998 concerning the collection of statistical 
information by the European Central Bank
3 requires all Member States to ‘organise themselves in 
the field of statistics … and fully co-operate with the ESCB in order to ensure the fulfilment of the 
obligations arising out of Article 5 of the Statute’. These provisions, therefore, imply that non-participating Member States are under an obligation to design and implement, at the national level, 
all measures they consider appropriate to carry out  the collection of statistical information needed 
to fulfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements a nd to make timely preparations in the field of 
statistics in order for them to become participating Member States
4. 
2.3 In this context, it is primarily the task of th e national authorities of non-participating Member States 
to determine which detailed reporting requirements and collection methods are the most efficient 
and effective at the national level and the least burdensome for the reporting population concerned. 
On this basis, the ECB welcomes the draft regula tion which is aimed at aligning BNR’s statistical 
reporting requirements for non-banking financial in stitutions with the ECB’s statistical reporting 
requirements for financial corporations. 
2.4 The ECB notes that the draft regulation form s part of the new legal framework which was 
introduced by the new law on non-banking financia l institutions. The ECB has already provided its 
opinion on this new law5. 
  
                                                 
3  OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 
4  See ECB Opinion CON/2005/52 of 5 December 2005 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 lim its for data 
supply and ECB Opinion CON/2005/49 of 30 November 2005 at the request of Česká národní banka on a draft provision 
concerning the submission of statements by banks and foreign bank branches to Česká národní banka. 
5  See ECB Opinion CON/2007/23 of 2 August 2007 at the request of Banca Na ţională a României on a draft law on non-
banking financial institutions. 
 
3 3.  Technical comments 
3.1  The ECB considers that BNR should closely monitor the activities of non-banking financial 
corporations and ensure the inclusion of the en tire sectorial breakdown in Appendix 1 to the draft 
regulation, in accordance with Guideline ECB/2003 /2. The ECB also recommends that loans for 
health services (Article 3 (e1.1) of the draft regulation) be classified as ‘credits for other purposes’. In addition, the ECB notes the following differe nces between the ECB’s statistical reporting 
framework and the draft regulation: (i) while Guideline ECB/2003/2 requires that securities other 
than shares, shares and other equity held by financ ial corporations be reported at market value, the 
draft regulation does not lay down such requireme nts; and (ii) according to asset categories in 
Annex I, Part 3 of Regulation ECB/2001/13 of  22 November 2001 concerning the consolidated 
balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector
6, loans granted to households for the 
purpose of education (Article 3 (e1.1) of the draft regulation) are classified as ‘other loans’ and not 
as ‘consumer credits’. 
3.2 This opinion does not prejudice any future E CB assessment relating to the reporting scheme for 
statistics on balance sheet assets and liabilities of non- banking financial corporations applicable in 
Romania. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 8 August 2007. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
 
                                                 
6  OJ L 333, 17.12.2001, p. 1.