EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 4 November 2005 
at the request of Česká národní banka 
on a draft decree amending Decree No 307/2004 co ncerning the submission of information and 
documents to Česká národní banka  by entities belonging to the financial institutions sector 
(CON/2005/45) 
 
1. On 19 September 2005, the European Cent ral Bank (ECB) received a request from Česká národní 
banka (ČNB) for an opinion on a draft decree amending Decree No 307/2004 of ČNB concerning 
the submission of information and documents to ČNB by entities belonging to the financial 
institutions sector (hereina fter the ‘draft decree’). 
2. The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on the fourth indent of Article 2(1) of 
Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the c onsultation of the European Central Bank by 
national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions1, as the draft decree relates to the 
collection of monetary, financial, banking, payment systems and balance of payments statistics. In 
accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rul es of Procedure of the European 
Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion. 
3. Decree No 307/2004 Coll. currently lays down th e requirements for submission of statistical 
information to ČNB by money market funds and certain  other entities belonging to the other 
financial intermediaries (OFIs) reporting population. The collected data are used to compile money 
and banking statistics and quarterly fina ncial accounts statistics, which are, inter alia , reported to 
the ECB. The draft decree extends the scope of Decree No 307/2004 Coll. to regulate the collection 
of data from insurance corporations and pension funds (hereinafter ‘ICs & PFs’) for the purposes of 
producing quarterly financia l accounts. Pursuant to the draft d ecree, ICs & PFs w ill be obliged to 
submit data statements (on the first occasion co mpiled to 31 March 2006) in line with the new 
requirements. Moreover, the draft decree modifies in  certain respects the obligations of financial 
corporations engaged in lending (‘asset fina ncing intermediaries’) to submit data to ČNB.  
4. The ECB welcomes the  proposed broadening of the reporting population under the draft decree to 
cover ICs & PFs. Statistical data on ICs & PFs are becoming increasingly necessary to enable the 
production of a comprehensive overview of the activiti es of financial intermediaries, in particular 
as financial integration and deregulation are gradua lly blurring the distinctions between traditional 
                                                      
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
 
2 financial sub-sectors such as banking, asset management and insurance.  Moreover, the 
development of quarterly sector accounts for the euro area, including those for ICs & PFs, will 
provide a comprehensive tool for monitoring the impact of monetary policy decisions on investment and financing flows between different sectors of the economy. 
5. The ECB notes that there are currently no EU regulations which require data reporting on ICs & 
PFs at quarterly or other infra-annual frequenci es. Also, Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 
concerning the collection of statistical in formation by the European Central Bank
2 does not 
expressly include ICs & PFs within the reference reporting population . Nevertheless, the ECB also 
notes that  the national central banks of the Member Stat es that have adopted the euro are required 
to provide statistics on ICs & PFs for the compilati on of euro area financial accounts pursuant to 
Guideline ECB/2002/7 of 21 November 2002 on the statistical reporting requirements of the 
European Central Bank in the field of quarterly financial accounts3. It is consistent with the ECB’s 
collection of statistical data on ICs & PFs under Guideline ECB/2002/7 for a Member State that has 
not yet adopted the euro also to establish an appr opriate national legal framework for the collection 
of such data. In this context, the ECB notes th at the new draft Annexes 4 and 5 to Decree No 
307/2004 Coll. (entitled structure and content of st atements submitted for ICs & PFs respectively) 
are in line with the requirements laid down in Guideline ECB/2002/7. 
6. As regards certain changes to the obligations of  asset financing intermediaries to submit data, 
Article 6c of the draft decree applies the ‘cutting- off-the-tail’ principle to these institutions, which 
limits the reporting burden to statistically signifi cant respondents. Since there is currently no ECB 
legal instrument in force providing for a harmonised method of data collection from such institutions, the ECB considers that ČNB is best placed to assess wh ich method best accords with 
the general principle of not overburdening the reporting population. The ECB welcomes the other 
technical modifications contained in the draft decree, designed to bring Decree No 307/2004 Coll. into line with Council Regulation (EC) No 2223/96 of 25 June 1996 on the European systems of 
national and regional accounts in the Community
4. 
7. Finally, it should be noted that time series coveri ng more than one business cycle are important for 
monetary policy analysis purposes so that economi c and financial developments can be properly 
understood and possible underlying trends identified.  The enlarged euro area aggregates therefore 
need to be compiled retrospectively. It follows  from Guideline ECB/2002/7 that the NCBs of the 
10 new Member States that acceded to the EU on 1 May 2004 would be requi red, on joining the 
euro area, to transmit back data on infra-annual financial accounts to the ECB – including back 
data on ICs&PFs – at least from the date of their accession onwards. 
                                                      
2 OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 
3  OJ L 334, 11.12.2002, p. 24. 
4  OJ L 310, 30.11.1996, p. 1. 
 
3 8. This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 4 November 2005. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET