EN ECB -PUBLIC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK  
of 12 July 2013  
on stabilisation measures  
(CON/201 3/50) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 19 June  2013, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Banca Naţională a României 
(BNR) for an opinion on a draft  government emergency ordinance (hereinafter the ‘draft emergency 
ordinance’) supplementing Government Emergency Ordinance No 99/2006 on credit institutions and 
capital adequacy (GEO No 99/2006)1.  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Art icles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union and the third and sixth indents of Article  2(1) of Council Decision 
98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions2, as the draft emergency ordinance relates to BNR and to rules 
applicable to the financial institutions insofar as they materially influence the stability of financial 
institutions and markets. In accordance with the first sent ence 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 emergency ordinance  
The draft emergency ordinance extends the scope of BNR’s competence to adopt stabilisation measures3 to 
cases where there is a threat to financial stability from the perspective of depositor protection and/or public 
confidence in the banking sector .  
 2. General observations  
The ECB welcomes the enlargement of BNR ’s competence to adopt st abilisation measures on the  
additional grounds  set out in the  draft emergency ordinance
4. Depositor protection is a legitimate aim for 
the resolutio n of di stressed credit instit utions which  meet the condi tions for resolu tion and it is in line with 
                                                 
1  Published in Monitorul Oficial al României, Part One, No 1027, 27.12.2006.  
2 OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42 . 
3  See Opinion CON/2011/86.  All ECB opinions are published on the ECB’s website at  www.ecb.europa.eu.  
4 See Article 24023(1) of GEO No 99/2006 as amended by the draft emergency ordinance . 
ECB -PUBLIC 
2 the F inancial Stability Board’s  (FSB)  Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial 
Institutions5.   
 
3. Specific observations  
3.1 In view of the above  observat ions, in Section 21 (stabilisation measures)6 of GEO No 99/2006 it 
would be appropriate t o make a clearer distinction between  the objective s behind  stabilisation 
measures, such as fi nancial stability  from the perspective of safeguarding market confidence  and 
depos itor protect ion, and the cond itions that need  to be met before such measures are taken against a 
distressed credit institution . 
3.2 In this regard, BNR  is invited to follow  the European C ommission’s  proposal for a directive 
establishing a framework for the recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms7, 
which is c urrently going through the adoption process in the Council and the European Parliament,  
and to align the regime for stabilisation  measures with  that proposal.   
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  
 
 
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 12 July 2013.  
 
[signed]   
The President of the ECB  
Mario DRAGHI  
                                                 
5  FSB Key attribute s for effective  resol ution  regime s for fi nancial instit utions, October 2011, available on the FSB’s website 
at www.financialstabilityboard.org . See objective (ii) in the Preamble on page 3  of that document . 
6  In particular  Article 24023, as amended by the draft emergency ordinance.  
7  Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the recovery and 
resolution of credit institutions and investment firms and amending Council Directives 77/91/EEC and 82/891/EC, 
Directives 2001/24/EC, 2002/47/EC, 2004/25/EC, 2005/56/EC, 2007/36/EC and 2011/35/EC and Regulation (EU) 
No 1093/2010  (COM (2012) 280 final) . This text is now to go into the trialogue stage of the adoption process.