EN ECB -PUBLIC  
 
 OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL  BANK  
of 17 April 2020  
on the identification and reporting by financial institutions of the 
allocation of sums deposited i n savings accounts   
(CON/2020/12)  
 
Introduction and legal  basis  
On 20 February 2020 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Secretariat of the 
Belgian Parliament’s Commission of Economy on a draft law amending the Belgian Code of Economic 
Law1 (hereinafter the ‘ draft law’).  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an opin ion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the third indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC2, as 
the draft law relates to the Banque Natio nale de Belgique/ Nationale Bank van België (‘NBB’) and the 
ECB’s tasks concerning the prudential supervision of credit institutions pursuant to Article 127(6) of the 
Treaty . 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 
1.1 The draft law imposes  a duty on financial institutions to identify the allocation of sums deposited on 
savings  accounts  in their balance sheets . According to the explanatory memorandum,  the purpose 
of this obligation is to encourage transparency , higher ethical standards  and greater control in the 
Belgian banking sector.  
1.2 Pursuant to the draft law, financial institutions would have to draft a report each year on the 
allocation of those sums.  This report would be filed with the NBB. Under the draft law, the report 
would also be sent to the Belgian Chamber, one of the two main assem blies of the Belgian 
Parliament . The explanatory memorandum specifies that the Committee of Finance and Budget 
within the Chamber would analyse the report carefully.  
1.3 The draft law would further confer on  the King the power to adopt a Royal Decree in order to 
determine the technical modalities of the allocation of the sums  and to establish a model of the 
report.  
 
                                                 
1  Loi du 28 février introduisant le Code de droit économique/Wet van 28 februari 2013 tot invoering van het Weboek 
van economisch recht, telle que modifiée/zoals nader gewijzigd, Moniteur Belge/Belgisch Staatsblad, 29.3.2013, 
p. 19975.  
2  Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national 
authorities regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42).  
ECB -PUBLIC  
2 2. Observations  
2.1 The ECB appreciates that the draft law intends  to encourage transparency, higher ethical 
standards and greater control in the Belgian banking sector. However, whether the measures 
contemplated by the d raft law adequately serve this purpose should be reconsidered.  
2.2 First, regarding Belgian credit institutions supervised by the ECB within the framework of the Single 
Supervisory Mechanism, the ECB is responsible for carrying out various tasks for prudential 
supervisory purposes in relation to credit institutions established in Belgium . These tasks  includ e 
ensur ing compliance with all relevant Union law, including Union regulations and Belgian legislation 
transposing Union directives, which impose (a) prudential requirements in the areas of own funds 
requirements, securiti sation, large exposure limits, liquidity, leverage, and reporting and public 
disclosure of information on those matters, and (b) requirements on credit institutions to have in 
place robust governance arrangements, including the fit and proper  requirements  for the persons 
responsible for the management of credit institutions, risk management processes, internal control 
mechanisms, remuneration policies and practices and effective internal capital adequacy 
assessment processes3. Against this backdrop, the Belgian legislator is invited to consider  how the 
proposed new reporting obligation imposed by the draft law on financial institutions  to identify in 
their balance sheets the allocation of sums deposited on saving accounts  would fit into the existing 
Union and Belgian legal  and regulatory  framework for the prudential supervision of credit 
institutions . Taking existing reporting and disclosure obligations of credit institutions regarding  
prudential  matters into account , consideration c ould also be given as to whether this new reporting 
obligation would increase the reporting burden of credit institutions , and if so,  for what purposes, 
such as encouraging transparency, higher ethical standards and greater  control . It is suggested 
that the Belgian legislator consider s the added value of the reporting obligation s that would be 
implemented under the d raft law. 
2.3 Second, while it should be  feasible for a credit institution to identify and report on the amount of 
liabilities that are represented by deposits on savings accounts, it is not clear what is intended by 
the obligation on  credit institutions to identify and report on the allocation of sums deposited on 
savings accounts . The liabilities, including deposit liabilities and  the equity of a credit institution,  
come from a variety of different funding sources , as clarified in the financial statements of that 
credit institution. In principl e, insofar as  credit institutions comply with the prudential requirements 
set out in Union law, there are no constraints on how funding  is used. Therefore, the identification 
of the allocation of each source of financing is in practice extremely difficult,  if not completely 
impossible.  Given the diversity of a credit institution’s sources of funding , and – quite importantly - 
given the intrinsic ally fungible character of money, it would not be feasible for a credit institution to 
identify the exact source of financing when extending a particular loan or investing in a particular 
asset . In fact, this would only be possible in cases where the assets , invested in using deposits in 
savings accounts , had been segregated from the rest of the institution’s assets.  
2.4 Third , the reporting obligation of financial institutions vis -à-vis the NBB, as set out in the draft law, 
                                                 
3  See Article 4(1)(d)  and (e) of Council Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013 of 15 October 2013 conferring specific tasks on 
the European Central Bank concerning policies relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions (OJ L 287, 
29.10.2013, p. 63).  
ECB -PUBLIC  
3 raise s some uncertainties. The content of the report has not been specified. Although the draft law 
provides that the King must  determine a model of t he report in a royal decree, the level of detail  
that the financial institutions will have to respect remains undefined in the draft law . Moreover, the 
King must determine the ‘ technical modalities of the allocation of the sums ’. The d raft law does not 
specify what this precisely refers to.  As the Royal Decree would clarify the content of the report and 
the practical modalities of the obligations set forth in the draft law , the ECB expects  to be consulted 
on the draft Royal Decree on the basis of Article  127 (4) of the Treaty . 
2.5 Fourth, the NBB’s powers and tasks with respect to the measures contemplated by the draft law, 
and more particularly the annual report to be filed by Belgian financial institutions with the NBB , 
remain at this stage undefined in the draft law. The draft law requires that the report be annually 
submitted to the NBB, but does not specify what the NBB should do with the information received. 
The draft law could helpfully indicate whether the NBB is expected to use this annual report within 
the scope of its existing powers and tasks , or whether the submission of the report would trigger 
any particular obligation or power for the NBB.  The ECB expects  to be consulted under 
Article  127 (4) of the Treaty insofar as new tasks are conferred on the NBB under the draft law . 
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s  website.  
 
 
Done at Frankfurt am Main,  17 April 2020.  
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB  
Christine  LAGARDE