EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 30 August 2006 
at the request of Magyar Nemzeti Bank 
on a draft regulation on carrying out payment transactions 
and the Hungarian Ministry of Finance  
on a draft government regulation on paymen t services and electronic payment instruments 
(CON/2006/46) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 27 July 2006 the European Central Bank (ECB ) received a request from Magyar Nemzeti Bank 
(MNB) for an opinion on an MNB draft regulation on carrying out payment transactions (hereinafter 
referred to as the ‘draft MNB regulation’). On 3 August 2006, the ECB received a request from the 
Hungarian Ministry of Finance for an opinion on a draft government regulation on payment services and electronic payment instruments (hereinafter referred to as the ‘draft government regulation’) (draft MNB 
regulation and draft government regulat ion are hereinafter referred to join tly as ‘draft regulations’). Since 
the draft regulations cover closely related subjects,  the ECB has joined both consultations above in a 
single consultation procedure. 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the fifth indent of Article  2(1) of Council Decisi on 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 
on the consultation of the European Central Bank by  national authorities regarding draft legislative 
provisions
1, as the draft regulations relate to payment and settlement 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 regulations 
According to their statements of reasons, the draft regulations will bring Hungarian law into line with 
Directive 97/5/EC of the European Parliament a nd of the Council of 27 January 1997 on cross-border 
credit transfers
2, Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the 
protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts3, Directive 2002/65/EC of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2002 concerning the distance marketing of consumer 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  OJ L 43, 14.2.1997, p. 25. 
3  OJ L 144, 4.6.1997, p. 19. 
2 financial services and amending Directive 90/ 619/EEC and Directives 97/7/EC and 98/27/EC4 and  
Commission Recommendation 97/489/EC of 30 July 1997  concerning transactions by electronic payment 
instruments and in particular the re lationship between issuer and holder5. In addition to the implementing 
provisions: 
(i) the draft MNB regulation provides detailed ru les for identifying bank accounts, execution of 
payment orders and payment met hods and standard forms for domes tic payment instructions; and 
(ii) the draft government regulation regulates opening of  the bank accounts, disposal over accounts and 
limitations on disposal over accounts (bankruptcy , winding-up and debt settlement procedures and 
the queuing of payment orders). 
In light of the above, the scope of the draft re gulations goes beyond the mere implementation of the 
relevant Community directives. 
 2. General observations  2.1 The ECB welcomes the draft regulations, as they will  foster transparency and legal certainty for the 
execution of cross-border and domestic payments an d help achieve a level playing field throughout 
the European Union. 
2.2 The ECB understands that the draft regulations prejudice neither (i) the application of the national 
law implementing the Settlement Finality Directive
6; nor (ii) the powers of system operators to lay 
down the criteria for participants; nor (iii) an y oversight standards applied to systems by the 
competent authorities. 
 3. Specific observations on the draft MNB regulation 3.1 The draft MNB regulation contains an exhaustiv e list of domestic payment methods. This legal 
technique of exhaustive listing is  appropriate when the legislator intends to exclude any other 
possibilities. However, in light of rapid innova tion and technological progress in payment methods, 
the ECB recommends listing the payment me thods in an exemplificative way. 
3.2 Article 55(1) of the draft MNB regulation refe rs to credit institutions authorised to provide 
‘payment services’. In the interests of clarity instead a reference could be made to ‘direct 
participants in the domestic payment system’. 
 4. Specific observations on the draft government regulation 4.1 According to Article 6(5) of the draft governme nt regulation, credit institutions may enforce their 
claims ‘before having cognisance as defined in Article 7(12) of the opening of liquidation 
                                                 
4  OJ L 271, 9.10.2002, p. 16. 
5  OJ L 208, 2.8.1997, p. 52. 
6  Directive 98/26/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 1998 on settlement finality in payment and 
securities settlement systems (OJ L 166, 11.6.1998, p. 45).  
3 proceedings’. The ECB is of the view that instead of the general reference to Article 7(12), 
Article 6(5) could refer expressly to the receipt of  notification under Article 29(g) of the Law XLIX 
of 1991 on bankruptcy proceedi ng, liquidation proceeding and voluntary dissolution and the 
publication of the relevant court decision in the case of client account keepers not keeping a bank 
account for an account holder. 
4.2 The ECB notes that in spelling the name of the single currency as ‘euró’, Article 9 of the draft 
government regulation does not comply with the sp elling rules for the word ‘euro’. To make the 
euro’s singleness apparent, Community law7 requires a single spelling of the word ‘euro’ in the 
nominative singular case in all Community and national legislative provisions. On the basis of these considerations and in view of the Community ’s exclusive competence to determine the name 
of the single currency, any deviations from this ru le are incompatible with the Treaty and should be 
eliminated. 
4.3 Article 13 of the draft government regulation w ill exempt institutions from the legal consequences 
under the draft government regulation of late execution in case of force majeure . According to 
Law XV of 2003 on preventing and combating money laundering (Money Laundering Law), 
service providers must suspend any transactions wh ere there is a suspicion of money laundering 
and police action should be taken. Such suspensi on required under national law may result in late 
execution. Therefore, for reasons of clarity the ECB recommends referring to the relevant national legal provisions, including the Money Laundering La w, in addition to the exemptions already 
provided for in the draft government regulation. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 30 August 2006. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
 
                                                 
7  See Council Regulation (EC) No 1103/97 of 17 June 1997 on certain provisions relating to the introduction of the euro 
(OJ L 162, 19.6.1997, p. 1), Council Regulation (EC) No  974/98 of 3 May 1998 on the introduction of the euro 
(OJ L 139, 11.5.1998, p. 1) and Council Regulation (EC) No 2866/98 of 31 December 1998 on the conversion rates 
between the euro and the currencies of the Member States adopting the euro (OJ L 359 31.12.1998, p. 1), all three of 
which were amended in 2000 for the introduction of the euro  in Greece. See also the Co mmunity legislation on euro 
coins in 1998 and 1999, as well as Council Regula tion (EC) No 2169/2005 of 21 December 2005 amending 
Regulation (EC) No 974/98 on the introduction of the euro (OJ L 346, 29.12.2005, p. 1).