EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 12 December 2008 
at the request of the Spanish State Secretary for Economic Affairs 
on a draft law amending the Law on p ayment and securities settlement systems 
(CON/2008/87) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 10 November 2008 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Spanish State 
Secretary for Economic Affairs for an opinion on a proposal for a draft law on payment services amending Law 41/1999 on payment and securities settleme nt systems (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the third and fifth indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions
1, as the draft law relates to the Banco de España and payment systems. 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 law 
The draft law transposes Directive 2007/64/EC
2. The sixth final provision of the draft law amends Law 
41/1999 on payment and securities settlement systems,  which transposed Directive 98/26/EC of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 19 Ma y 1998 on settlement finalit y in payment and securities 
settlement systems3 (hereinafter the ‘Settlement Finality Directive’). This opinion focuses on the 
amendments to Law 41/1999, as the consulting author ity requested the ECB’s comments only on the sixth 
final provision of the draft law.  
The proposed amendments are: – to delete the Servicio de Liqui dación del Banco de España (SLB E, the Spanish real-time gross 
settlement system (RTGS) component of TARGET
4) from the list of systems designated by the 
competent Spanish authorities, following the replacement of TARGET by TARGET2 and the 
subsequent replacement of the SLB E by TARGET2-Banco de España; 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the 
internal market amending Directiv es 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 
97/5/EC (Text with EEA relevance), OJ L319, 5.12.2007. 
3  OJ L 166, 11.6.1998, p. 45. 
4  Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer. 
2 – to extend the definition of system participant to  cover credit institutions and investment firms 
authorised to operate in the European Economic Area (EEA), in order to allow their participation in 
systems designated by the competent Spanish aut horities, thereby meeting the needs expressed by 
payment system market operators, in particular in  the context of achieving the single euro payment 
area (SEPA); 
– to extend participation in the Sistema Nacional de Compensación Electrónica, (SNCE, the Spanish 
system for retail transactions) or other systems managed by Sociedad Española de Sistemas de Pago, S.A . (Iberpay) to institutions authorised to operate in the EEA; 
– to delete the requirement that Iberpay systems settle fund transfer orders only on a cash account 
with the Banco de España, in line with the current Article 3(d) of Law 41/1999, which is applicable 
to such systems and allows for settlement on a cash  account with the Banco de España but also with 
the ECB or a national central bank whose system is  connected to Banco de España’s within the 
European System of Central Banks; 
– also with regard to Iberpay systems, to delete  the requirement to publish basic system operation 
rules in the Boletín Oficial del Estado , as this requirement is already laid down in Article 3(a) of 
Law 41/1999, which is applicable to all Spanish designated systems.  
 2. Participation in designated systems  
The ECB welcomes the proposal to open up cross-bor der participation in the Spanish retail payment 
market, thereby helping to achieve the SEPA’s objective of one single payment area.  
The ECB also welcomes the proposal to extend the defi nition of system participant to cover institutions 
authorised to operate in the EEA in order to allo w their participation in systems designated by the 
competent Spanish authorities, but notes that the list of institutions which may participate in payment or 
settlement systems designated under the Settlement Finality Directive should include any undertaking 
whose head office is outside the Community and wh ose functions correspond to those of the Community 
credit institutions or investment firms
5.   
 3. Oversight of Iberpay 
Regarding the Banco de Espa ña’s oversight of Iberpay provided for in  Article 17(3) of the draft law, the 
ECB notes that this competence has to be exercised in accordance with  Eurosystem oversight standards 
and policies established on the basis of the fourth inde nt of Article 105(2) of the Treaty and Article 22 of 
the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank. 
   
                                                 
5  See Article 2(b), fourth indent of the Settlement Finality Directive. 
3 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 12 December 2008. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET