EN ECB-P UBLIC  
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 20 February 2012 
on State guarantees 
(CON/2012/13) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 27 January 2012 the European Central Bank (ECB)  received a request from the Governor of the 
Banco de España, on behalf of the Spanish State Secret ary for Economic Affairs, for an opinion on a draft 
order developing Article 49(2)(b) of Law 39/2010 of  22 December 2010 on the State General Budget for 
2011, on State guarantees (hereinafter the ‘draft order’).  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and on the third and sixth indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 
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 provisions relate to the Banco de España and to rules 
applicable to financial institutions that materially  influence the stability of financial institutions and 
markets. In accordance with the firs t 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 order 
The draft order lays down further details concerni ng Article 49(2)(b) of Law 39/2010 of 22 December 
2010 on the State General Budget for 2011 by laying down rules on the conditions for the State 
guarantees, the eligibility of institu tions and operations, the applicab le fees and the requesting and 
granting procedures. 
The draft order covers credit institutions with a register ed office in Spain and which have issued, with or 
without State guarantees, similar securities to t hose covered by the present State guarantees scheme. 
The eligible bank bonds are non-subordinated securities, without any other type of guarantee, traded in 
Spanish secondary markets. The securities can be issu ed until 30 June 2012, a nd have a maturity of 
between one and five years. The interest rate can be  fixed or variable. The minimum amount of each issue 
is EUR 10 000 000.  
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
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2 The scheme contemplates two types of fees: a fee on the granting of the guarantee amounting to 0.5% of 
the guaranteed amount, and a fee on every guaranteed issu e of securities. This fee will be calculated in 
accordance with a formula set out in an annex to th e draft order, taking into account several factors and 
following European Commission criteria2. The maximum amount of the State guarantees is EUR 100 000 
million. 
 2. General observations  The consultation request was submitted on 27 January, a nd the consulting authority requested the ECB to 
consider the consultation as a matter of urgency, wi thout however setting a time limit. On 1 February, 
without further notice, the draft order was adopted and published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado 
including an annex on the fee structure that had not b een included in the draft text submitted to the ECB. 
In this context, the ECB would like to remind the Spanish authorities that, according to Article 4 of 
Decision 98/415/EC, the ECB must be consulted at an  appropriate stage enabling the authority initiating 
the draft legislative provision to take into consid eration the ECB’s opinion before taking its decision on 
the substance. Furthermore, it should be ensured that th e ECB is able to perform its advisory role in an 
appropriate manner by making available the full draft text to it. 
 3. Specific comments 3.1 Pricing 
The ECB welcomes that Article 4(b) of the draft orde r specifies that guarantee fees applied to financial 
institutions benefiting from the State guarantees will be  in line with criteria adopted by the Commission 
The ECB reiterates its view that coordination of th e duration of national financial support schemes across 
the Union is of crucial importance to ensure a level pl aying field. In addition, the ECB notes the need for 
national support measures to be temporary in nature. 
3.2 Relationship with the single monetary policy  
According to Article 3 of the draft order, onl y bank bonds (‘obligaciones’ and ‘bonos’) may be 
guaranteed. The ECB understands that in terbank deposits will not be guarant eed. This is in line with the 
view stated by the ECB in previous opinions
3, whereby the extension of State guarantees to interbank 
deposits should be avoided, as it coul d entail a substantial distortion in  the various national segments of 
the euro area money market by potentially increasing short-term debt issuance activity across Member 
States and therefore impairing the implementation of the single monetary policy. 
 
                                                 
2  See Communication from the Commission on th e application, from 1 January 2012, of  State aid rules to support measures 
in favour of banks in the context of the fi nancial crisis (OJ C 356, 6.12.2011, p. 7). 
3  Opinion CON/2008/50, paragraph 3.2,  Opinion CON/2009/12, paragraph 3.3.2,  Opinion CON/2009/49, paragraph 3.9 
and Opinion CON/2009/73, paragraph 3.1. 
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3 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website. 
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 20 February 2012. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI