EN ECB-PUBLIC  
 
 
 OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 10 June 2011  
on Národná banka Slovenska’s role as regards  financial supervision and consumer credit 
(CON/2011/49) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 29 April 2011 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Slovak Ministry of 
Finance for an opinion on a draft law amending Law No 492/2009 Coll. on Payment Services and on 
amendments to certain laws, as amended by La w No …/2011 Coll., and amending certain laws 
(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 and fifth indents of Ar ticle 2(1) of Council 
Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consul tation of the European Central Bank by national 
authorities regarding draft legislative provisions1, as the draft law relates to Národná banka Slovenska 
(hereinafter ‘NBS’) and payment and settlement sy stems. 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. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft law 
1.1 The main purpose of the draft law is to tr anspose Directive 2009/110/EC of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 16 Septembe r 2009 on the taking up, pursuit and prudential 
supervision of the business of electronic m oney institutions amending Directives 2005/60/EC 
and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 2000/46/EC
2, and Directive 2010/76/EU of the European 
Parliament and of the Council of 24 N ovember 2010 amending Directives 2006/48/EC 
and 2006/49/EC as regards capital requirements for the trading book and for re-securitisations, and 
the supervisory review of remuneration policies3.  
1.2  This opinion only addresses those draft law provi sions that go beyond the mere transposition of 
Directives 2009/110/EC and 2010/76/EU4. These relate to: (a) limited providers’5 notification 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2 OJ L 267, 10.10.2009, p. 7. 
3   OJ L 329, 14.12.2010, p. 3. 
4  This applies to Law No 492/2009 Coll. on payment services; Law No 747/2004 Coll. on supervision in the financial 
market; and Law No 129/2010 Coll. on consumer cred its and other credits and loans for consumers. 
5    See Article 3(k) of Directive 2007/64/EC  of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on 
payment services in the internal market amending Directiv es 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). 
ECB-PUBLIC  
2 obligations towards NBS; (b) the NBS’s role in the European System of Financial Supervision 
(ESFS); (c) the calculation of the annual contributions  paid by supervised entities to NBS; (d) the 
obligation on creditors to report data on newly-prov ided consumer credits to NBS; (e) fine-tuning 
and eliminating ambiguity in pro cedures related to supervision. 
 2. General observations The ECB notes that it was not consulted on the draft of Law 129/2010 Coll., which was adopted on 
9 March 2010 and which conferred certain tasks on NBS. Issues relevant to national central banks are 
expressly listed among the areas of the ECB’s comp etence. Therefore, the ECB reminds the Slovak 
authorities that they should honour their obligation under the Treaty to consult the ECB, in accordance 
with Decision 98/415/EC. 
 3. Specific observations 3.1 NBS’s role in the ESFS  
Article 1(3)(e) of Law No 747/2004 Coll. deals with  NBS’s obligation to exchange information and 
cooperate at national and interna tional level. The draft law amends this provision to expressly 
reflect NBS’s role in the ESFS. The tasks related to cooperation and exchange of information have 
already been conferred on national supervisory auth orities by virtue of directly applicable Union 
regulations
6. Therefore, they do not need to be transpo sed into the domestic law of Member States7. 
The draft amendment to Article 1(3)(e) of La w 747/2004 Coll. alters the content of the 
abovementioned Union regulations by restrictin g the exchange of information to the scope 
necessary for the supervision of supervised en tities by NBS, excluding other areas, such as macro-
prudential analysis. The ECB therefore suggests ad apting the current scope of the exchange of 
information in Article 1(3)(e), so as to exclude its restrictive effect. 
Provided that the amendments referring to NB S’s participation in the ESFS and to NBS’s 
obligation to provide for the discharge of tasks arising from legally binding Union acts are adopted, 
the last sentence of Article 4(3) of Law No 747/2004 Coll. will no longer be necessary.  
                                                 
6  See Regulation (EU) No 1092/2010 of the European Parlia ment and of the Council of 24 November 2010 on European 
Union macro-prudential oversight of the financial system and establishing a European Systemic Risk Board (OJ L 331, 
15.12.2010, p. 1); Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 of the European  Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010 
establishing a European Supervisory Authority (Europ ean Banking Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and 
repealing Commission Decision 2009/78/EC  (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 12); Re gulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010  establishing a European Supervisory Authority (European 
Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority), amen ding Decision No 716/2009/EC and repealing Commission 
Decision 2009/79/EC (OJ L 331, 15.12.2010, p. 48); Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of 
the Council of 24 November 2010 establishi ng a European Supervisory Authorit y (European Securities and Markets 
Authority), amending Decision No 716/2009/EC and re pealing Commission Decisi on 2009/77/EC (OJ L 331, 
15.12.2010, p. 84).  
7  See paragraph 2.4. of Opinion C ON/2006/29, paragraph 3.2.3 of Opinion CON/2006/55 and paragraph 2.2,(including 
footnotes 5 and 6) of Opinion CON/2007/43. 
ECB-PUBLIC  
3 3.2 Calculation of the annual contributions paid by supervised entities   
Under the draft amendment to Article 40(2) of Law No 747/2004 Coll., the calculation of annual 
contributions paid by supervised entities to NBS is amended so that the volume of assets will, for 
the purposes of the annual contri bution calculation, not include assets used exclusively in the 
conduct of non-supervised comme rcial activities. Such non-superv ised commercial activities may 
include commercial activities of a payment institu tion or limited issuance of electronic money by 
an electronic money institution. Under the draft law, the contributor is responsible for notifying NBS of the volume of assets to be used in cal culating the contribution. The NBS may verify the 
amount and request additional information and docum entation. In addition, the draft law abolishes 
the maximum amount of annual contributions for ce rtain supervised entities that are legal entities 
or branches of foreign legal entities.  
Based on these amendments, NBS’s final revenue from such contributions will change. Therefore, 
it should be ensured that this does not undermine NBS’s financial independence. 
3.3 Obligation for creditors to report data on newly-provided consumer credits to NBS  
The obligation for creditors to report data on newly-provided consumer credits to NBS  was already 
included in Law No 129/2010 Coll. and the amendments introduced by the draft law on this issue only relate to personal data protection
8. Nevertheless, Law No 129/2010 Coll. could provide more 
clarity on the respective responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance, NBS and ‘the person designated by them’ with regard to the processing and disclosure of these data
9. 
Financing of a new task by a national central bank has to be in line with th e principle of financial 
independence, under which it must have sufficient means to perform not only its European System 
of Central Banks tasks, but also its national t asks, e.g. financing its administration and own 
operations10. 
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 10 June 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
 
                                                 
8  Article VI(14) of the draft law. 
9  Article 21(2) of Law No 129/2010 Coll. 
10  See the ECB’s convergence report, May 2010, p. 21.