EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 9 July 2010  
on the provision of information and other obligations of Banka Slovenije  
as payment service provider for budget users 
(CON/2010/55) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 22 June 2010 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Slovenian Ministry of 
Finance for an opinion on a draft law on the provision of payment services to budget users (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 
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 indent  of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions
1, as the draft law relates to Banka Slovenije . In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Eur opean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
1.1 The draft law mainly governs the organisation a nd tasks of the Public Payments Administration of 
the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter the ‘PPA’) an d certain aspects of the functioning of the single 
treasury account system. The PPA’s tasks are currently laid down in the Law on payment transactions
2, which was mostly replaced in 2009 by a new Law on payment services and systems3 
implementing the Payment Services Directive4. Further rules are laid down in regulations adopted 
on the basis of the Law on payment transactions. According to the explanatory memorandum, the draft law does not introduce a new regime for the functioning of the single treasury account system 
or for the performance of payment transactions by  ‘budget users’ (defined by the Law on public 
finance
5 as State and municipal authorities and organi sations, municipal administrations and public 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Zakon o pla čilnem prometu , published in Uradni list Republike Slovenije No 30/2002. 
3  Zakon o pla čilnih storitvah in sistemih , published in Uradni list Republike Slovenije No 58/2009. The ECB issued 
Opinion CON/2009/27 on this Law. All ECB opinions are pub lished on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. Like 
Opinion CON/2009/27, the present opinion does not include an y assessment of the implemen tation of directives in 
Slovenia. 
4  Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the 
internal market amending Direct ives 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC  and 2006/48/EC and repealing 
Directive 97/5/EC (OJ L 319, 5.12.2007, p. 1). 
5  Zakon o javnih financah , published in Uradni list Republike Slovenije No 79/1999. 
2 funds, institutes and agencies established by the St ate or a municipality). Instead, the draft law 
transforms the key provisions of the existing re gime governing the PPA’s tasks into a functional 
whole. 
1.2 The abovementioned single treasury account system is one of the characteristics of the system of 
public finance in Slovenia. There is one such si ngle treasury account system for the State and one 
for each municipality, and it is composed  of accounts opened with Banka Slovenije6. The 
maintenance and management of these accounts, howeve r, is entrusted to the PPA. Several types of 
accounts are maintained within each  single treasury account system, namely: treasury sub-accounts 
of the State and of municipalities, maintained for the management of funds of each single treasury 
account system; sub-accounts to which fiscal revenu es are paid in; sub-accounts maintained for the 
provision of payment services to budget users, and other types of accounts foreseen by laws and 
other regulations7. In addition to maintaining these accounts,  the PPA also collects and distributes 
all relevant information on payments to and fr om these accounts, maintains a register of budget 
users and performs other tasks assigned by law. The whole system, established in its current 
structure in 2003, is described in the draft la w’s explanatory memorandum as being effective in 
ensuring complete, up-to-date and accurate informat ion on all transactions involving public funds 
in one place, thereby facilitating, among other th ings, the processing of the relevant data for 
budget, tax, statistical and other purposes and the su pervision of the monetary flow to and from the 
budget. 
1.3 Under conditions laid down in th e Law on public finance or a regula tion adopted by the Minister of 
Finance, budget users are authorised to open special-purpose transaction accounts (a category of payment accounts) directly with Banka Slovenije, for the purpose of the separate management of 
funds allocated to a specific programme or project . Pursuant to Article 23(3) of the draft law, 
Banka Slovenije provides to the PPA, free of charge , information on payments debited and credited 
to such accounts and on the amount of funds held on such accounts, while regulations adopted by 
the Minister of Finance define rules on the method and deadlines for this provision of information. Pursuant to Article 23(5), the Minister of Finance also lays down the terms for opening, 
maintaining and closing the accounts of budget users, and several other rules in connection with the 
payments to and from the system of public finance. 
 2. The appropriate time to consult the ECB 2.1 In its consultation request, the consulting author ity asks for the ECB’s opinion to be delivered as 
soon as possible, considering that the draft law is already in the parliamentary procedure. However, 
no explicit time limit for the submission of the opini on has been set. Since the date of receipt of the 
consultation request, further steps towards adopti on of the draft law have been made in the 
Slovenian National Assembly, including the inclusio n of several amendments to the draft law. 
                                                 
6  Article 61 of the Law on public finance. 
7  See Article 23(1) of the draft law. 
3 2.2 The ECB points out that, in cases of particular urgency which do not allow for a normal 
consultation period, the consulting authority may indicate urgency in the consultation request and 
ask for a shorter deadline for the ECB’s opinion to be adopted. This does not prejudice the 
consulting authority’s duty under Article 127(4) an d 282(5) of the Treaty to consult the ECB on 
national draft legislative provisions falling within its fields of competence at an appropriate stage in 
the national legislation process, as stated in the second sentence of Article 4 of Decision 98/415/EC. This implies that the consultation should take place at a point in the legislative process 
which affords the ECB sufficient ti me to examine the draft legislative provisions and to adopt its 
opinion in all required language ve rsions, and which also enables the relevant national authorities 
to take the ECB’s opinion into consideration be fore the provisions are adopted. Article 3(4) of 
Decision 98/415/EC also obliges Member States  to suspend the adoption process for draft 
legislative provisions, pending receipt of the ECB’ s opinion. As the draft law was submitted to the 
National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia a month before the ECB received the consultation 
request
8, this cannot be considered as a case of extreme urgency within the meaning of Article 3(2) 
of Decision 98/415/EC and it was also not indicated as such in the consultation request. In the absence of an explicit deadline fo r the submission of its opinion, but taking into account the 
consulting authority’s request for it to deliver an opinion as soon as possible, the ECB decided to 
apply the minimum one-month deadline provide d in Article 3(1) of Decision 98/415/EC. 
2.3  The opportunity to issue an opinion on a draf t law allows the ECB to express its views on the 
substance of the proposed legislation. The ECB reite rates its position that even cases of particular 
urgency do not relieve national authorities from their duty to consult the ECB and to allow 
sufficient time to take into account its view s in accordance with Decision 98/415/EC. Any 
substantive amendments to the draft law have to be submitted to the ECB in order to allow it to 
issue its opinion based on the most recent text . Furthermore, with respect to the present 
consultation, the process of adoption of the draf t law should have been suspended. The ECB’s 
comments on the provisions on which it was consulte d do not eliminate the breach of the obligation 
to consult it. The ECB would appreciate the Minist ry of Finance’s giving due consideration to 
honouring its obligation to consult the ECB in the future. 
 3. Obligations of Banka Slovenije as service provider 3.1 Requirements for the provision of information  
3.1.1 Article 21.2 of the Statute of the European Sy stem of Central Banks and of the European Central 
Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) est ablishes that the ‘ECB and national central banks 
may act as fiscal agents’ for ‘Union institutions, bodies, offices or agencies, central governments, 
regional local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public 
undertakings of Member States.’ This is reflect ed in Article 12 of the Law on Banka Slovenije
9, 
                                                 
8  The draft law was submitted to the National Assembly on  20 May 2010, while the releva nt consultation request was 
received by the ECB on 22 June 2010. 
9  Zakon o Banki Slovenije , published in Uradni list Republike Slovenije , No 72/2006. 
4 according to which Banka Slovenije may act as a payment and/or fiscal agent for the State and 
maintains accounts for the Republic of Slovenia,  State bodies and public entities. Pursuant to 
Article 53 of the same Law, Banka Slovenije lays  down the tariff for remuneration of the services it 
provides. The opening of special-purpose transaction accounts of budget users with Banka Slovenije, as referred to in Article 23(2) of the dr aft law, falls within the existing tasks of Banka 
Slovenije, for the provision of which the latter should be able to charge appropriate fees. 
3.1.2 Article 23(3) of the draft law obliges Banka  Slovenije to provide to the PPA information on 
payments debited and credited to such account s and on account balances free of charge. In 
addition, the draft law authorises the Minister of  Finance to independently prescribe the method 
and deadlines for such provision of information, while it does not provide any further guidelines in this respect. The requirements laid down by th e Minister might expose Banka Slovenije to a 
considerable burden, as they could have an imp act on its internal procedures and information 
systems and, consequently, could require additio nal human and financial resources. In order to 
protect the financial independence of Banka Sloveni je, the availability of such additional resources 
should be ensured in order not to affect Banka Slovenije’s capacity to carry out its European 
System of Central Banks (ESCB)-related tasks. Additionally, as noted in the ECB’s convergence 
reports, the principle of financial independence re quires a national central bank to have sufficient 
means not only to perform its ESCB-related tasks but also its national tasks (e.g. financing its 
administration and own operations)
10.  
3.1.3 Furthermore, the ECB recommends defining in more  detail the scope of the relevant obligations of 
Banka Slovenije, in order to ensure certainty as re gards its tasks. Also, the involvement of Banka 
Slovenije in the preparation or adoption of the Mini ster’s act (e.g. through giving its consent) might 
be considered to ensure that its provi sions are feasible and to optimise them. 
3.2 Other requirements prescribed by the Minister of Finance  
3.2.1 Pursuant to Article 23(5) of the draft law, th e Minister of Finance prescribes, among other things, 
the terms for opening, maintaining and closing th e accounts of budget users, the content, method 
and deadlines for the provision of information by payment service providers on payments debited 
and credited to the accounts of budget users, the obligatory content of instructions for the payment of fiscal revenues as well as rules on the provision of other information in connection with the relevant payment transactions. 
3.2.2 It is not clear from the draft law whether (or to  what extent) such rules would also apply to the 
accounts maintained by Banka Slovenije or ot herwise impose additiona l obligations on Banka 
Slovenije. Should this be the case, it seems unusual that the Minister of Finance, as a customer, 
defines the terms and condition for the accounts and services provided by Banka Slovenije. The 
draft law should respect the provisions of Article  27 in conjunction with Article 12 of the Law on 
Banka Slovenije whereby such terms and conditions are establis hed by an agreement between 
Banka Slovenije and the Ministry of Finance. More importantly, taking into account the express 
                                                 
10  See e.g. the ECB’s Convergence Report of May 2010, p. 21. 
5 recognition in Article 21.2 of the Statute of the ESCB of the provision of fiscal agency services as a 
legitimate function traditionally performed by central banks11, the ECB notes that provision by 
central banks of fiscal agency services should comply  with the monetary financing prohibition laid 
down in Article 123 of the Treaty by not constitu ting central bank financing of public sector 
obligations vis-à-vis third parties12 or central bank crediting of the public13. In this respect, the ECB 
recalls that it is essential to make explicit that any remuneration of the account held by the budget 
users with Banka Slovenije will reflect market parame ters. In particular, it is  important to correlate 
the remuneration rate of the deposits with thei r maturity. As recalled in past ECB opinions14, the 
prohibition on monetary financing by central banks  of government activities is independent of its 
form, i.e. loans or other direct financial means (e.g. the provision of direct, non-reimbursable funding to the public sector) are covered by the pr ohibition. Interest payments above market rates 
constitute a de facto advance distribution of profits. This, in turn, implies a de facto intra-year credit, contrary to the objective of the monetary  financing prohibition. Therefore, the remuneration 
of deposits of public entities should not go beyond the remuneration applied to a similar deposit 
made by a market counterparty. If the remune ration mechanism for deposits of public entities 
allows the Government to systematically steer the remuneration by an NCB at a rate above the rate 
at which a similar deposit would be remunerated by a market counter party, this would contravene 
the objectives of the monetary financing prohibition under the Treaty.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 9 July 2010. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
11  See the ECB’s Convergence Report of May 2010, p. 25, which st ates that ‘The purpose of Article 21.2 of the Statute  was 
to enable NCBs, following transfer of the monetary policy competence to the Eurosystem, to continue to conduct the 
fiscal agent service traditionally provided by central banks to governments and other public entities without automatically 
breaching the monetary financing prohibition.’ 
12  See Article 1(1)(b)(ii) of Council Regulation (EC) No 3603/93 of 13 December 1993 specifying definitions for the 
application of the prohibitions referred to  in Articles 104 [now 123] and 104b(1) [now 125(1)] of the Treaty (OJ L 332, 
31.12.1993, p. 1). 
13  See also ECB Opinion CON/2009/23, paragraph 2.2. 
14  See in particular ECB Opinions CON/2008/10 and CON/2009/69.