EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 28 April 2005 
at the request of Magyar Nemzeti Bank 
on a draft regulation on the requirement to provi de transaction codes for its information system   
(CON/2005/10) 
 1. On 24 March 2005, the European Central Bank (E CB) received a request from Magyar Nemzeti 
Bank (MNB) for an opinion on a draft regulation on  the requirement to provide transaction codes 
for its information system (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’). 
2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the fourth indent of Article 2(1) of 
Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the c onsultation of the European Central Bank by 
national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions
1, as the draft regulation concerns inter 
alia the collection of monetary, financial, banki ng, payment systems and balance of payments 
statistics. 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. 
3. The draft regulation relates to MNB’s central banking  information system and to the data required 
by law from clients to be input into that system fo r MNB to be able to fulfil its tasks, including the 
compilation of balance of payments statistics. Once the draft regulation is adopted, Government 
Decree No 256/2001 (XII.18) on transaction codes for cross-border payments will be repealed. The 
main objective of the amendments proposed by the draft regulation is to clarify when transaction 
codes must be provided and why.  
4. Article 5.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank provides that ‘the national central banks sha ll carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks 
described in Article 5.1’, i.e. ESCB tasks as defined by the Treaty establishing the European 
Community and the Statute. Article 10 of the Treaty requires that ‘Member States shall take all appropriate measures … to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of this Treaty’. 
Furthermore Article 47.2 of the Statute provides that the General Council (on which MNB is also 
represented) of the ECB must contribute to the collection of statistical information. 
                                                     
 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2 5. Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November  1998 concerning the collection of statistical 
information by the European Central Bank2 recognises that while the statistical information needed 
to fulfil the ECB’s requirements is not the same for all Member States, non-participating Member 
States also have obligations in the statistical area  and should make timely preparations for future 
participation in Stage Three of economic and mone tary union. Article 4 requires all Member States 
to ‘organise themselves in the field of statistics and … fully cooperate with  the ESCB in order to 
ensure the fulfilment of the obligations arising out of Article 5 of the Statute’. Recital 17 of this 
Regulation indicates that ‘this fact [that the sta tistical information need ed to fulfil the ECB’s 
statistical reporting requirements is not the same  for the participating as for the non-participating 
Member States], together with Article [10] of the Treaty, implies an obligation to design and 
implement at the national level all the measures th at Member States consider appropriate in order 
to carry out the collection of the statistical info rmation needed to fulfil the ECB’s statistical 
reporting requirements and the timely preparations in  the field of statistics in order for them to 
become participating Member States’. 
6. Although transaction codes are generally dealt with in Member States’ statistical information 
reporting systems, the ECB is concerned that Member States are properly prepared to meet the ECB’s requirements in the field of balance of payments, international investment position and 
international reserves statistics. 
7. On the basis of the above, the ECB welcomes the initiative to adopt the draft regulation, which 
should assist MNB in collecting and compili ng balance of payments statistics.  
8. In general, the ECB considers the lists of transac tion codes proposed in the draft regulation to be 
broadly in line with internati onally accepted standards. However,  as regards the transaction codes 
list to be indicated by clients (Annex I),  the ECB considers  the list of balance of payment codes 
less comprehensive than the list of transacti on codes recommended by the Committee on Monetary, 
Financial and Balance of Payments entitled ‘Har monised code list for balance of payments 
collection systems’ (2001), which is consistent w ith the International Mone tary Fund standard list 
of balance of payments items and complies with all ECB requirements. This is acceptable if the 
missing codes are subsumed in other codes and th e total amounts in the associated transactions 
remain relatively low. The ECB also acknowle dges that Hungary has other data sources to 
complement the data to be reported under this  regulation. The ECB further notes that, while 
Hungary’s balance of payments statistics rightly show financial derivatives in the financial account, 
they are included within the list of transacti on codes for portfolio investment (Annex I).  
9. In connection with the list of country codes to be  indicated by the reporting institutions (Annex II), 
groupings are acceptable as long as the amounts of  associated transactions/positions remain 
relatively low and do not conflict with the list set out in Table 9 of Annex II to Guideline 
ECB/2004/15 of 16 July 2004 on the statistical repor ting requirements of the European Central 
                                                     
 
2  OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 
3 Bank in the field of balance of payments and in ternational investment position statistics, and the 
international reserves template3. The ECB welcomes the list’s individual identification of EU 
Member States outside the euro area. 
10. At the same time, it is the NCBs’ task to assess whether its reporting instructions and collection 
methods at national level are the most efficien t and effective and the least burdensome for the 
reporting agents concerned. The ECB is not in a position to substitute itself for the NCBs in 
fulfilment of this task. This also applies to the draft regulation. 
11. The ECB’s present comments do not prejudice any la ter assessment of the Hungarian statistical 
information system and its collection methods. 
12. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 28 April 2005. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                     
 
3  OJ L 354, 30.11.2004, p. 34.