EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 23 March 2011 
on amendments to the legislation on settlement finality and on financial collateral arrangements 
(CON/2011/26) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 25 February 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Banca Na ţională a 
României (BNR) for an opinion on a draft G overnment Emergency Ordinance amending and 
supplementing Law No 253 of 16 June 2004 on settlement  finality in payment and securities settlement 
systems1 and Government Ordinance No 9/2004 on certain financial collateral arrangements2 (hereinafter 
the ‘draft emergency ordinance’).  
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 the second, fift h and sixth indent of Ar ticle 2(1) of Council 
Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consu ltation of the European Central Bank by national 
authorities regarding draft legislative provisions3, as the draft emergency ordinance relates to means of 
payment, payment and settlement systems and rules app licable to the financial institutions insofar as they 
materially influence the stability of financial ins titutions and markets. 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 ordinance 
The main objective of the draft emergency ordina nce is to transpose Directive 2009/44/EC of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 amending Directive 98/26/EC on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement system s and Directive 2002/47/EC on financial collateral 
arrangements as regards linked systems and credit claims
4. For this purpose, it amends the two legal acts 
through which Directive 98/26/EC and Directive 2002/ 47/EC have been implemented in the Romanian 
legal system. 
 
                                                 
1 Published in Monitorul Oficial al României  Part One, No 566 of 28 June 2004. 
2  Published in Monitorul Oficial al României   Part One, No 78 of 30 January 2004. 
3  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
4  OJ L 146, 10.6.2009, p. 37. 
2 2. General observations  
2.1 The deadline for the transposition of Dir ective 2009/44/EC by the Member States was 
30 December 2010. In view thereof, the consulti ng authority invokes reasons of extreme urgency 
and asks the ECB to deliver its opinion by 22 March 2011. The ECB would like to draw the consulting authority’s attention to the fact that  according to the second sentence of Article 4 of 
Decision 98/415/EC, the ECB must be consulted ‘at an  appropriate stage’ in the legislative process. 
This implies that the consultation should take place at a point in the legislative process that affords 
the ECB sufficient time to examine the draft legislative provisions and to adopt its opinion in the required language versions and wh ich also enables the relevant national authorities to take the 
ECB’s opinion into consideration before the provisions are adopted.   
2.2 The ECB has no comments on the substance of the Romanian transposition of 
Directive 2009/44/EC.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 23 March 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET