EN ECB-PUBLIC  
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 27 June 2014 
on statistical reporting requirements in the field of payment statistics 
(CON/2014/47) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
On 4 April 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Polish Minister for 
Finance for an opinion on a draft ordinance of the Mi nister for Finance on detailed scope of information 
referred to in Article 14a-14c of the Law on payment services which is  to be transferred to Narodowy 
Bank Polski and the procedure for complying with the reporting obligation (hereinafter the ‘draft 
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 third, f ourth and sixth indents of Article 2(1) of Council 
Decision 98/415/EC1, as the draft law relates to Narodowy Bank Polski (NBP), the collection, 
compilation and distribution of monetary, financial, banking, payment systems and balance of payments 
statistics, and rules applicable to financial institutions  insofar as they materially influence the stability of 
financial institutions and markets. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of 
Procedure of the European Central Bank, th e Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft ordinance 
1.1 The draft ordinance implements Article 14d of the Law of 19 August 2011 on payment services
2, 
which authorises the Minister for Finance to im pose on acquirers, electronic money institutions and 
payment instrument issuers obligations to report data to NBP, which NBP uses for the purposes of 
making periodic assessments of monetary clearing as part of its role as overseer of payment systems. 
1.2 The draft ordinance will replace and consolidat e three implementing ordinances which currently 
regulate the reporting obligations of acquirers , payment card issuers and electronic money 
                                                 
1  Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consulta tion of the European Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42). 
2 Dziennik Ustaw  (Dz. U.) of 2011 No 199, item 1175. 
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2 institutions3. Additionally, the draft ordinance expands the scope of reporting to include payment 
instruments other than payment cards. 
1.3 The draft ordinance also aims to update the relevant reporting templates to take account of 
Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 (ECB/2013/43) of the European Central Bank4 and 
Recommendation ECB/2013/445. 
 2. General observations 2.1  Article 5.2 of the Statute of the European Sy stem of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) provides  that ‘national central banks shall carry out, to 
the extent possible, the tasks described in Article  5.1’. These are the tasks of the European System 
of Central Banks (ESCB) defined in the Treaty a nd the Statute of the ESCB. Although regulations 
adopted under Article 34.1 of the Statute of the ESCB do not confer any rights or impose any obligations on Member States that have not adopt ed the euro (hereinafter the ‘non-euro area 
Member States’), Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB applies to all Member States, whether or not 
they have adopted the euro
6. In addition, Article 4 of Council Re gulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires 
all Member States to ‘organise themselves in the fi eld of statistics and … fu lly cooperate with the 
ESCB in order to ensure the fulfilment of the oblig ations arising out of Article 5 of the Statute’. 
These provisions therefore mean that non-euro area Member States are under an obligation to 
design and implement at national level all measure s they consider appropriate to carry out the 
collection of statistical information needed to fu lfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements and 
to make timely preparations in the field of sta tistics in order for them to become participating 
Member States. 
2.2  In this context, it is primarily the task of the national authorities of non-euro area Member States to 
determine which detailed reporting requirements and collection methods are the most efficient and 
effective at the national level and the least burde nsome for the reporting population concerned. The 
ECB does not comment in detail on national reporting provisions as they may differ considerably between Member States, depending on various nati onal and external factors. The ECB’s comments 
are therefore of a general nature only and are m eant to serve as a guide, enabling Polish authorities 
to shape its reporting requirements in line with t hose of the Eurosystem in preparation for Poland’s 
adoption of the euro.  
 
                                                 
3  The three ordinances were issued under the Law on electronic payment instruments, which wa s repealed with effect from 
7 October 2013 as part of the consolidation of payment serv ices-related provisions in the Law on payment services. On 
that consolidation, see Opinion CON/2012/72. All E CB Opinions are published on the ECB’s website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
4 Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 of the European Central Bank of 28 November 2013 on payments statistics 
(ECB/2013/43) (OJ L 352, 24.12.2013, p. 18). 
5 Recommendation of the European Central Bank of 28 Nove mber 2013 on payments statis tics (ECB/2013/44) (OJ C 5, 
9.1.2014, p. 1). 
6  See recital 17 in the preamble to Counc il Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 N ovember 1998 concerning the collection of 
statistical information by the European Central Bank (OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8).  
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3 3. Specific observations and technical comments 
3.1 The ECB welcomes the consolidation of the implementing provisions on reporting obligations in 
the field of payment statistics for a certain part of  the reporting population  in a single act, as it 
will increase the clarity and consistency of inte rpretation and applicat ion of the reporting 
obligations.  
3.2 The ECB also welcomes the statement by the Polis h authorities that the draft ordinance aims to 
align the statistical reporting requirements in Poland in the field of payment statistics with relevant 
parts of the ECB’s requirements, in particular  as laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 
(ECB/2013/43) and Recommendation ECB/2013/44. Ac hieving consistency with the ECB’s 
statistical standards and requirements  will enable the reporting popula tion to become familiar with 
the statistical reporting regime that will apply once Poland adopts the euro. With this in mind, the 
ECB takes the view that further alignments with Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013 (ECB/2013/43) 
might be considered worthwhile as regards: (i) the adoption in template FN.19 of a geographical 
breakdown similar to Table 3 in Annex III to that Regulation; (ii) a possible distinction between 
point-of-sale (POS) and non-POS terminals in temp late ST.03; and (iii) a possible inclusion of 
information on the general structure of payment stat istics and data definitions similar to Annexes I 
and II to that Regulation. In addition, the ECB notes that the reporting of payment statistics by 
payment system operators does not fall within the sc ope of the draft ordinance, as this information 
is collected under different national provisions7.  
3.3. The ECB welcomes the fact that the draft ordinance includes provisions for collecting detailed 
information on payment instruments for oversight purposes which is in most aspects very similar to, or even more detailed than (e.g. in respect  of EMV, e-money and mobile payments), the 
corresponding Eurosystem scheme of data collect ion. The ECB observes that no breakdown per 
country of foreign fraudulent transactions appears to be included. As a result,  in this respect, the 
Polish authorities would have no detailed informa tion on the geographical origin of the fraud. In 
addition, the draft ordinance appears not to in clude a breakdown of ATM cash withdrawal fraud 
into categories (‘lost and stolen’, ‘card not r eceived’, ‘counterfeit’, ‘other’), whereas this 
breakdown is included in relation to e-money. Th e ECB recommends introducing a differentiation 
in the data collection distinguishing fraudulent transactions resulting from mail or telephone order 
from transactions of that kind made via the Intern et. Such differentiation would be advantageous as 
Internet fraud, in particular, is increasing substa ntially. Admittedly, however, this also remains an 
optional breakdown under the current Eurosystem scheme for data collection.  
                                                 
7  The relevant provisions are Article 16 of the Law on settlem ent finality in payment systems and securities settlement 
systems and the rules for the supervision of such systems (Dz. U. of 2010 No 112, item 743) and Article 23(2a) of the 
Law on Narodowy Bank Polski (consolidat ed text: Dz. U. of 2013, item 908). 
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4 3.4 The above comments do not prejudice any future  ECB assessment relating to the reporting scheme 
for payment statistics in Poland. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 27 June 2014. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI