Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (codified version)` (98/C 157/03)

On 9 March 1998 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 4 March 1998. The rapporteur was Mr Pelletier.

At its 353rd plenary session (meeting of 25 March 1998), the Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 96 votes to one, with four abstentions.

1. Introduction

1.1. On 1 April 1987 the Commission decided to instruct its staff to codify all legislative measures after no more than ten amendments.

1.2. The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edinburgh European Council in December 1992 confirmed this, stressing the importance of legislative codification, which must be undertaken in full compliance with the normal Community legislative procedure.

1.3. Given that no changes of substance may be made to the instruments affected by legislative codification, Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure might be used for the fast-track adoption of codification instruments.

1.4. The Economic and Social Committee can only welcome the effort to achieve transparency and accessibility through codification. The various directives concerned by the codification project have been substantially amended on several occasions. It was therefore necessary for the sake of clarity and coherence to codify these directives by integrating them in a single text. Moreover, these texts will be the references for the candidate countries when they transpose the acquis communautaire into their national laws.

1.5. This exercise completes the communications examined by the Economic and Social Committee with the aim of clarifying the scope of the directives.

2. Scope of codification

2.1. The present codification proposal concerns the following basic directives:

- 73/183/EEC: Abolition of restrictions on freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services in respect of self-employed activities of banks and other financial institutions;

- 77/780/EEC: First banking directive;

- 89/299/EEC: Own funds of credit institutions;

- 89/646/EEC: Second banking directive;

- 89/647/EEC: Solvency ratio for credit institutions;

- 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis;

- 92/121/EEC: Monitoring and control of large exposures of credit institutions.

2.2. It also concerns the following amending directives:

2.2.1. Directive 77/780/EEC - First banking directive

- 85/345/EEC: Special provisions for Greece;

- 86/137/EEC: Deferred application for certain Member States;

- 89/646/EEC: Second banking directive;

- 95/26/EEC: 'Post BCCI` () prudential supervision;

- 96/13/EEC: Permanent exclusion of certain credit institutions.

2.2.2. Directive 89/299/EEC - Own funds

- 91/633/EEC: Treatment of funds for general banking risks (FGBR);

- 92/16/EEC: Special provisions for mortgage credit institutions;

- 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis.

2.2.3. Directive 89/646/EEC - Second banking directive;

- 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis;

- 95/26/EEC: 'Post BCCI` prudential supervision.

2.2.4. Directive 89/647/EEC - Solvency ratio

- 91/31/EEC: Definition of multilateral development banks;

- 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a consolidated basis;

- 94/7/EC: Definition of multilateral development banks;

- 95/15/EC: Technical definition of 'Zone A`;

- 95/67/EC: Definition of multilateral development banks;

- 96/10/EC: Contractual netting.

2.3. It is desirable that the picture be completed in the near future by taking into account the following directives adopted on credit institutions, listed by order of priority:

- 93/6/EEC: on the capital adequacy of investment firms and credit institutions;

- 94/19/EC: on deposit-guarantee schemes;

- 91/308/EEC: on prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering;

- 86/635/EEC: on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of banks and other financial institutions;

- 89/117/EEC: on the obligations of branches established in a Member State of credit institutions and financial institutions having their head offices outside that Member State regarding the publication of annual accounting documents.

2.3.1. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the legal limitations of the codification procedure (no amendment of substance and incorporation of the law as it stands), it would without doubt be desirable to urge the Commission to consider a recasting of the texts in force in the future. This would be a more flexible and more effective method.

2.3.2. As the codified texts would be of use to countries seeking EU membership, it is essential that this codification project be adopted as rapidly as possible.

Brussels, 25 March 1998.

The President of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS

() BCCI: Bank of Credit and Commerce International.