EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 1 September 2009 
on the remuneration of the Treasury availabilit y account held with the Banca d'Italia  
(CON/2009/69) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 30 July 2007 the European Central Bank (ECB) re ceived a request from the Italian Ministry of 
Economic Affairs and Finance (hereinafter the ‘MEF’ ) for an opinion on a draft law on accounting and 
public finance (hereinafter the ‘draft law’) and specif ically on Article 48 thereof (hereinafter the ‘draft 
article’).  
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the third indent 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 
provisions1, as the draft law relates to the Banca d’Ita lia. In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Europ ean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
The draft law was approved on 24 June 2009 by the Senate of the Republic and transmitted to the 
Chamber of Deputies for its approval and adoption. The s ubject of this opinion is the version of Article 48 
of the draft law that the consulting authority sent to the ECB with its consultation request. 
 1. Purpose of the draft article 
1.1 The draft article contains provisions implementi ng the structural reform, which was initiated at the 
end of 2007, of the Treasury availability accounts he ld with the Banca d’Italia, regulated by the 
Law on consolidation of legislativ e provisions and regulations on public  debt (hereinafter the ‘2003 
Consolidated Law’)
2. The draft article amends once more Ar ticle 5(5) of the 2003 Consolidated 
Law, which relates to the conditions  under which the availability account  is held and, in particular, 
its remuneration regime. According to the draft article, the conditions c oncerning the maintenance 
and remuneration of the account will be establishe d by an agreement between the MEF and the 
Banca d’Italia and will be linked to market para meters. The draft article also amends provisions 
concerning the remuneration of other accounts held by the Treasury with the Banca d’Italia and 
lays down transitional provisions for the period pr eceding the entry into force of the new regime. 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Presidential Decree No 398 of 30 December 2003 ( Gazzetta Ufficiale No 57, 9.3.2004, Supplemento ordinario) . 
2 Furthermore, it provides that accounting methods and criteria concerning the transactions 
connected to the abovementioned accounts w ill be determined by ministerial decree. 
1.2 The ECB has already been consulted twice by the MEF on draft legislative provisions related to 
Article 5(5) of the 2003 Consolidated Law, which were aimed at initiating and improving the 
reform of the maintenance and remuneration regime  of the Treasury availability account held with 
the Banca d’Italia3. The first consultation concerned amendmen ts to Article 5(5) by the then draft 
Article 2(39) of the 2008 Budget Law4; the second consultation request was received in 
February 2009 and referred to a draft minister ial decree containing amendments to the OPTES 
procedures5. On these occasions, the ECB analysed the draft provisions intended to amend 
Article 5(5) from the point of view of complianc e with the prohibition of monetary financing and 
with regard to implementation of  monetary policy. It generally welcomed the efforts made to 
address the problematic provisions of the legislation in force, but also called on the Italian Government to undertake further legislative change  to complete the structural reform of the 
availability account in a way that would meet Treaty requirements regarding the prohibition of 
monetary financing.  
 2. General observations 
Compliance of the legislation with the prohibition of monetary financing   
2.1 The ECB welcomes the fact that paragraph 1 of the draft article amends Article 5(5) of the 2003 
Consolidated Law by making reference to an ag reement between the MEF and the Banca d’Italia, 
to be concluded within three months of the en try into force of the draft law, under which the 
conditions of maintenance and rem uneration of the availability account are to be established. Most 
importantly, the remuneration rate that the Banca d’It alia will pay is linked to market parameters.   
2.2  The ECB had already identified in its 2008 opinion th at the legislation then in force, regulating the 
account held by the Treasury with the Banca d’Italia , did not contain provisions on the maturity of 
deposits and, consequently, did not explicitly corre late the remuneration rate of the deposits with 
their maturity. This meant that the account arra ngement was constructed in a way that did not 
exclude the possibility of Treasury deposit remunerati on rates being higher than the market rates, in 
particular for the remuneration of overnight depos its. Such a remuneration rate would contravene 
the objectives of the monetary financing prohibition under the Treaty
6. The attempt to amend 
Article 5(5) in order to address this issue was represented by the then draft Article 2(39) of the 2008 Budget Law, referred to above, which contai ned a provision which would have introduced a 
reference to market parameters regarding the re muneration of the account. However, this reference 
was deleted by the Parliament. The ECB, in the opi nion given on the then draft Article 2(39) of the 
                                                 
3  See Opinions CON/2008/10 and CON/2009/23. All EC B opinions are published on the ECB website at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
4  Law No 244 of 24 December 2007 ( Gazzetta Ufficiale No 300, 28.12.2007,  Supplemento ordinario ). 
5  At the present time, the draft ministerial decree has not been adopted. 
6  See paragraph 3.4.2 of Opinion CON/2008/10.  
3 2008 Budget Law, expressed its concerns in this regard7 and insisted, on the occasion of its 
subsequent opinion on the draft ministerial decree concerning the OPTES procedures that, until 
appropriate amendments to Article 5(5) were intr oduced, it would continue to consider the Italian 
legislation in force as incompatible with the prohibition of monetary financing8.   
2.3 The ECB is therefore pleased to note that paragra ph 1 of the draft article reintroduces a reference to 
market parameters, to which the interest rate to be  paid by the Banca d’Italia will be linked. The 
ECB considers that this amendment would overc ome the incompatibility with regard to the 
prohibition of monetary financing referre d to in the previous paragraph.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 1 September 2009. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
7  See paragraph 3.4.3 of Opinion CON/2008/10. 
8  See paragraph 2.1 of Opinion CON/2009/23.