EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 1 November 2005 
at the request of the Banca d’Italia 
on a draft regulation concerning the ov ersight of low-value payment systems  
(CON/2005/41)  
 
1. On 2 September 2005 the European Central Bank (E CB) received a request from the Banca d’Italia 
for an opinion on a draft regulation concerning the oversight of low-value payment systems (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’).  
2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the second, third, fifth and sixth indents 
of Article 2(1) of Council Decisi on 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on th e consultation of the European 
Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft provisions
1, as it contains provisions 
concerning means of payment, the Banca d’Ita lia, payment and settlement systems and rules 
applicable to financial institutions that materially  influence the stability of financial institutions and 
markets. In accordance with the fi rst sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the 
European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
3. The contents of the draft regulation  
The draft regulation concerns the oversight and operation of the BI-COMP system, which covers 
the clearing and transmission for settlement of lo w-value payments. BI-COMP consists of two sub-
systems ( Recapiti locale  for the exchange of cheques and paper-based instruments and Dettaglio  
for electronic payment instructions), as well as the national clearing procedure ( Compensazione 
nazionale ) to which the balances of the two sub-sy stems are transmitted. The draft regulation 
results from the Banca d’Italia’s decision to enable  legal persons other than the Banca d’Italia to 
perform certain parts of the processing of low-va lue retail payments, which makes it necessary to 
update the relevant legal framework. More specifically, as regards the Dettaglio  sub-system, the 
draft regulation provides that the phases precedi ng the calculation of the multilateral clearing 
balances will no longer be excl usively exercised by the Banca d’Italia, but also by market 
participants in free competition in accordance with the rules and principles set out in the Regulation 
concerning the oversight of payment systems issu ed by the Banca d’Italia on 24 February 20042. 
                                                      
1 OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2  The ECB was consulted on this Regul ation: see ECB Opinion CON/2003/14 of 7 August 2003 at the request of the Banca 
d’Italia on a draft regulation on payment systems,  payment infrastructures and payment instruments. 
 
2 The draft regulation highlights that the Recapiti locale  sub-system will continue to be exclusively 
operated by the Banca d’Italia. 
4. The Eurosystem’s policy statement on central bank provision of retail payment services  
In general, the ECB welcomes the draft regula tion’s provisions allowing free competition in the 
‘organisation, management and execution of the exch ange of payment instructions to be entered in 
the “Dettaglio” sub-system’. As stated in the Governing Council’s policy statement of 4 August 
20053 (hereinafter the ‘Eurosystem policy statement’), ‘in order to avoid competitive distortions or 
a crowding-out of market initiatives, NCBs [na tional central banks] which offer retail payment 
services to credit institutions take due account of the requirements and competitive environment of 
the market concerned, including cost recovery’. The ECB notes that the opening-up of certain parts of the BI-COMP retail payment system to compe tition does not raise oversight concerns provided 
that the systems in question continue to comply w ith Eurosystem oversight standards. Furthermore, 
the ECB notes that this opening-up is a policy decisi on of the Banca d’Italia, the aim of which is to 
facilitate the creation of the Single Euro Payments  Area (SEPA) and to ensure compliance with the 
Eurosystem policy statement.  
5. The opening-up of certain parts of the Dettaglio  sub-system to competition
 
The ECB notes that it is clearly the intention of th e draft regulation to create free competition in the 
Dettaglio sub-system. Therefore, the relevant provisions, in particular Article 2, could make this 
clearer by using wording such as: ‘The orga nisation, management and execution of payment 
instructions to be entered in the “Dettaglio” sub-system may be exercised by any person, in 
compliance with ... ’. 
6. Measures to ensure a level playing field  
The ECB notes that, alongside private operators, the Ba nca d’Italia itself may continue to organise, 
manage and execute the exchange of paym ent instructions to be entered in the Dettaglio  sub-
system. In order to ensure a level playing field, th e recitals to the draft regulation should clarify that 
the obligations being imposed on private operators ar e also applicable to the Banca d’Italia in its 
role as operator. Appropriate measures should be pu t in place to ensure th at observance of these 
requirements by both private operators and th e Banca d’Italia can be transparently assessed. 
7. The ECB welcomes the reference in recital 8 to the a pplication of the principle of cost recovery by 
central banks which directly provide low-value payment services in competition with the market, 
which is also intended to ensure a level playing field. 
8. Also, in the light of the Eurosystem policy statement, the ECB would propose the provision of 
further explanation regarding the statement in recital 11 that the Banca d’Italia’s exclusive 
operation is ‘indispensable’ in the phase of determin ation of the participants’ clearing balances and 
their consequent transmission for settlement, as far as concerns payment instructions flowing into 
                                                      
3  ‘Central banks’ provision of retail payment services in euro to credit institutions’; available on the ECB website 
(www.ecb.int). 
 
3 the Dettaglio  sub-system. This would clarify that the pr ovision is not intended to prevent private 
entities from providing comparable services in Italy, outside the scope of BI-COMP (i.e. those 
services that are described in recital 3 as the components of a clearing process). Otherwise the 
provision might be considered a competitive distortion or a crowding-out of market initiatives in the retail payments field.  
9. The Recapiti locale sub-system
 
The final recital to the draft regulation states that the characteristics of paper-based payment 
instruments make it ‘advisable’ for the Banca d’Ita lia to maintain operation of the entire clearing 
process of the Recapiti locale sub-system. However, it is noted that the explanatory note 
accompanying the draft regulation refers to ‘specific legal and operational characteristics that preclude the direct intervention of market operato rs, even in the exchange phase alone, requiring 
that the entire clearing process continue to be ope rated by the Bank of Italy’. The ECB understands 
that this refers to the fact th at the Banca d’Italia – as a public authority – may issue an official 
statement certifying that a cheque has not been paid ( dichiarazione sostitutiva del protesto ), 
pursuant to the first paragraph of Article 45 of Royal Decree 1736 of 21 December 1933 (according 
to which a clearing house can issue such a statemen t), read in conjunction with Article 18 of Royal 
Decree-Law 812 of 6 May 1926, ratified as Law 1262 of 25 June 1926 (according to which the 
Banca d’Italia is responsible for managing cl earing houses). However, pursuant to Royal Decree 
1736 of 21 December 1933 and Law 349 of 12 June  1973, various other authorities (e.g. public 
notaries) could issue an equivalent legal document ( protesto ) if private operators were able to clear 
cheques. Given the requirement under Article 105(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community for the Eurosystem to act in accordance with  the principle of an open market economy 
with free competition, the ECB proposes that the relevant Italian authorities amend the abovementioned legislative provisions to ensure that  specific functions of the Banca d’Italia in the 
payment system do not act as a competitive distortion or as a crowding-out of market initiatives in the retail payments field.  
10. Oversight requirements
 
Article 2 of the draft regulation sets out the Banc a d’Italia’s oversight role in relation to the 
activities of private operators which will organise,  manage and execute the exchange of payment 
instructions to be entered in the Dettaglio  sub-system. This Article builds on the Regulation 
concerning the oversight of payment systems issu ed by the Banca d’Italia on 24 February 2004. 
Payment systems oversight is a core competen ce of the Eurosystem and the common oversight 
policy defined by the Governing Council is the basi s for the Banca d’Italia’s oversight activities. 
Article 3 of the draft regulation sets out that sy stem operators will submit regular reports to the 
Banca d’Italia on the quantitative and qualitativ e characteristics of their activity. The ECB 
recommends that the design, reception and processing of these reports is performed in a way that 
allows the data to be aggregated and the r esulting statistics to be delivered to the ECB. 
 
 
4 11. SEPA  
The changes to the BI-COMP system are clearly intended to take account of two important 
Eurosystem goals: creating SEPA and setting up SE PA-compliant infrastructure allowing for euro 
area-wide interoperability. In this  respect the Eurosystem welcomes the migration from national to 
SEPA-compliant infrastructures in order to foster competition4.  
12. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 1 November 2005. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                     
 
4  See ‘Towards a single euro payments area - Third pr ogress report’, 2 December 2004; available on the ECB website 
(www.ecb.int).