EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 29 May 2006 
at the request of the Belgian Ministry of Finance 
on a draft royal decree establishing the balance of payments, the international investment position 
and international trade statistics for servi ces and foreign direct investment in Belgium 
(CON/2006/25) 
 Introduction and legal basis On 17 March 2006, the European Central Bank (ECB) re ceived a request from the Belgian Ministry of 
Finance for an opinion on a draft royal decree esta blishing the balance of payments, the international 
investment position and international trade statistics fo r services and foreign direct investment in Belgium 
(hereinafter the ‘draft royal decree’). 
The ECB’s competence to de liver an opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and on the second, third, fourth  and fifth indents of Article 2(1) of Council 
Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consu ltation of the European Central Bank by national 
authorities regarding draft legislative provisions
1, as the draft royal decree relates to the collection by the 
Nationale Bank van België/B anque Nationale de Belgi que (NBB) of data from Belgian residents to 
establish the balance of payments a nd related monetary and financial statistics. In accordance with the 
first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Pro cedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing 
Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft royal decree  The draft royal decree is intended to implement the Belgian Law of 28 February 2002 regulating 
the compilation of the balance of payments, the in ternational investment position and the statistics 
of the international trade in services and the fore ign direct investments of Belgium and amending 
the Decree Law of 6 October 1944 on foreign ex change control and various legal provisions 
(hereinafter the ‘Law of 28 February 2002’)
2, as last amended by the Law of 1 May 20063. The 
                                                           
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  For the ECB’s views on the Law of 28 February 2002 s ee ECB Opinion CON/2001/23 of 30 August 2001 at the request 
of the Belgian Minister of Finance on a draft law on the co mpilation of the balance of payments and the international 
investment position of Belgium and am ending the Decree Law of 6 October 19 44 on foreign exchange controls and 
various legal provisions. 
3  For the ECB’s views on the Law of 1 May 2006 see ECB Opinion CON/2005/31 of 29 August 2005 at the request of the 
Belgian Minister of Finance on a preliminary draft law that amends the Law of 28 February 2002 regulating the 
2 main change by the Law of 1 May 2006 is the intr oduction of the possibility to implement a direct 
reporting system for the collection of statistical data by the NBB, as opposed to the previously applicable system whereby the relevant data were primarily collected through the banking sector. 
Following this amendment, the draft royal decree intends to replace the Royal Decree of 
19 March 2002 concerning the establishment of th e balance of payments and the international 
investment position of Belgium
4, which currently implements the Law of 28 February 2002. The 
draft royal decree thus specifies how, according to the categories of economic agents and/or foreign 
transactions concerned, statistical data will need to  be provided to the NBB, which is empowered to 
adopt more detailed regulations in this manner. Although the draft royal decree thereby largely 
maintains the structure and content of the Roya l Decree of 19 March 2002, it contains adaptations 
that are necessary mainly to take account of the new direct reporting system and of the reporting of foreign transactions instead of the current reporting of foreign payments. 
 2.  General observations 2.1  As a general comment, the ECB refers to para graphs 5 and 6 of its Opinion CON/2005/31 on the 
benefits of a direct reporting system and of sa mple surveys as facilitating the operation of such 
system. The data reporting requirements laid down in the draft royal decree are also based on such system and method. The ECB therefore welcomes the purpose and effects of the draft royal decree in reducing the administrative burden for unde rtakings and natural persons who carry out 
professional activities, while at the same time ensuri ng the high quality of the data used to compile 
the euro area balance of payments and interna tional investment position statistics, in accordance 
with Guideline ECB/2004/15 of 16 July 2004 on the statistical reporting requirements of the 
European Central Bank in the field of balance of  payments and international investment position 
statistics, and the international reserves template
5. The ECB notes in this respect that, in order to 
perform the tasks of the European System of Ce ntral Banks, the ECB, assisted by the national 
central banks, including the NBB, collects the necessary statistical information either from the 
competent national authorities or directly from ec onomic agents, thereby endeavouring to limit as 
far as possible the overall reporting burden for the economic agents concerned. 
2.2  The ECB also welcomes the exclusion of natura l persons’ private transactions from the draft royal 
decree thus exempting them completely for su ch transactions from its  reporting requirements. 
Given that no threshold applies to this exempti on for natural persons, this  exemption is obviously 
wider than the exemption for cross-border paym ents in Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) 
                                                                                                                                                                                           
compilation of the balance of payments and the internati onal investment position of Belgium and amending the Decree 
Law of 6 October 1944 on foreign exchange  control and various legal provisions. 
4  For the ECB’s views on the Royal Decree of 19 March 2002 es tablishing the balan ce of payments and the international 
investment position of Belgium (herei nafter the ‘Royal Decree of 19 March 2002’) see ECB Opinion CON/2002/3 of 
14 2002 at the request of the Governor of the Nationale Bank  van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique on a draft royal 
decree and draft accompanying regulations on the compila tion of the balance of payments and the international 
investment position of Belgium. 
5  OJ L 354, 30.11.2004, p. 34. 
3 No 2560/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2001 on cross-
border payments in euro6 (hereinafter ‘the Regulation’) and, similarly, in Article 2 of the Royal 
Decree of 19 March 2002. As regards the categorie s of transactions covered by the draft royal 
decree, it should be ensured that the reporting requ irements for such transactions are in line with 
Article 6(1) of the Regulation, when such transacti ons fall within its scope of application (see e.g. 
the second and third paragraphs of Article 1 of th e Regulation for this scope). In particular, the 
ECB questions whether the cross-border reporting requirements for payment card issuers and operators of payment card systems in Article 6 of the draft royal decree should not be subjected to 
the conditions laid down in the Regulation, par ticularly the EUR 12 500 exemption threshold in 
Article 6(1) thereof. 
2.3 Additionally, in the context of national legisla tion on the reporting of paym ent-related transactions, 
such as the draft royal decree, the ECB refers to  the establishment of the Single Euro Payments 
Area (SEPA) by the European banking industry and strongly supported by the ECB. The SEPA 
aims to establish the euro area as a domestic paym ent area without internal borders. When fully 
implemented, a single set of payment instrument s will be used for both national and cross-border 
payments in the euro area, thereby eliminating differences between national and euro area cross-
border payments. 
 3.  Technical observations  3.1 The ECB proposes using the concept of ‘moneta ry financial institution’ instead of ‘credit 
institution’ in the fourth indent of Article 1, §1 of  the draft royal decree. This concept is defined in 
Regulation ECB/2001/13 of 22 November 2001 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector
7 and is also used in the fourth indent of Article 1, §1 of the 
Royal Decree of 19 March 2002. 
3.2  In addition, the ECB notes that the draft roya l decree will, when adopted, apply retroactively from 
1 January 2006 (Article 21). While the draft roya l decree’s reporting requirements mostly simplify 
the current requirements under the Royal Decree of  19 March 2002, the ECB trusts that, for every 
category of reporting agent and transaction subject to  the draft royal decree, retroactive compliance 
with the reporting requirements imposed by the draft royal decree will be possible without 
imposing a burden on the reporting agents. 
 
                                                           
6  OJ L 344, 28.12.2001, p. 13. 
7  OJ L 333, 17.12.2001, p. 1. Regula tion as last amended by Regulation E CB/2004/21 (OJ L 371, 18.12.2004, p. 42). 
4 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 29 May 2006. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET