EN ECB-P UBLIC  
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 9 December 2011 
on the payment of an increase in Roma nia’s International Monetary Fund quota 
(CON/2011/102) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 30 November 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Banca Na ţională a 
României (BNR) for an opinion on a draft Government emergency ordinance on accepting the increase of Romania’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota (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 on the third i ndent 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 provisions
1, as the draft ordinance relates to Banca Na ţională a României. In accordance with 
the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Pr ocedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing 
Council has adopted this opinion. 
 1. Purpose of the draft ordinance 
On 15 December 2010, the IMF’s Board of Governors adopted Resolution No 66-2 to, inter alia , increase 
the quotas of all IMF members. The IMF must receiv e the required notices of co nsent to the increases by 
31 December 2011. Hence, BNR requests the ECB’s opinion to be issued by 12 December 2011. 
Under the draft ordinance, BNR is authorised to  pay the increase of Romania’s quota from special 
drawing rights (SDR) 1 030,2 million to SDR 1 811,4 million. As stated in the explanatory memorandum to the consultation letter, 25% of the proposed quota increase will be paid by using the reserve tranche 
facility and the remainder by Romanian lei.  
Article 4(4) of Law No 312/2004 on the Statute of BNR
2 states that BNR exercises rights and fulfils 
obligations incumbent on Romania in its capacity as an  IMF member and Article 30(1)(c) states that BNR 
sets and maintains foreign reserves that are made up of, inter alia , ‘any other worldwide acknowledged 
reserve assets, including the right to purchase from th e IMF within the reserve tranche, as well as the 
special drawing rights holdings’. According to Artic le 2 of Government Ordi nance No 30/1996 regulating 
Romania’s participation in the IMF3, ‘starting from July 1996 all rights and obligations of Romania 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Published in Monitorul Oficial al României , Part One, No 582, 30.6.2004. 
3  Published in Monitorul Oficial al României , Part One, No 186, 12.8.1996. 
ECB-P UBLIC  
2 resulting from transactions with the IMF shall be reflect ed in BNR’s balance sheet’. Thus, it is incumbent 
on the BNR to make the payments to the IMF in  relation to the increase of Romania’s IMF quota.  
 2. General observations  
2.1  Central bank independence  
The ECB notes that BNR is responsible for paying any increases in Romania’s IMF quota and that it 
exercises the rights and obligations incumbent on Roma nia in its capacity as an IMF member. The SDRs 
are part of the foreign reserves managed by BNR pursuant to Article 31(b) of the Statute of BNR
4. Thus, 
BNR is entrusted with the task of exercising the ri ghts and obligations resulting from the membership of 
its Member State in the IMF. The ECB understands that in this context and in line with the principle of 
central bank independence enshrined in Article 130 of  the Treaty and Article 7 of the Statute of the 
European System of Central Banks and of the Eur opean Central Bank, BNR ta kes decisions in a fully 
independent manner regarding th e management of the SDRs. 
2.2 The monetary financing prohibition 
Several ECB opinions5 have noted that the tasks performed by a national central bank (NCB) must 
comply with the monetary financing prohibition unde r Article 123 of the Treaty and Council Regulation 
(EC) No 3603/93 of 13 December 1993 specifying definitions for the application of the prohibitions referred to in Article 104 and Article 104b(1)
6. Pursuant to Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 3603/93, the 
financing by NCBs of obligations falling upon the p ublic sector vis-à-vis the IMF is not regarded as a 
credit facility within the meaning of Article 123 of th e Treaty. Therefore, the ECB notes that the payment 
by BNR of the proposed increase in Romania’s quota in  the IMF does not infringe the monetary financing 
prohibition.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.    Done at Frankfurt am Main, 9 December 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI 
                                                 
4  Banca Na ţională a României shall be authorised under the terms established by it and su bject to its periodical 
amendments to purchase, sell and perform other transactions with foreign currencies.  
5  See the most recent opinions: C ON/2011/68, CON/2011/89 and CON/2011/97. All ECB Opinions are published on the 
ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
6  OJ L 332, 31.12.1993, p. 1.