EN ECB -PUBL IC 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK  
of 4 March  2013  
on the Oesterreichisch e Nationalbank ’s contributions  to the International M onetary Fund’s 
Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and a bilateral loan agreement between the I nternational 
Monetary Fund and the  Oesterreichische Nationalbank  
(CON/20 13/16) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 31 January 2013, the European Central Bank (ECB) received request s from the Austrian Ministr y of 
Finance for an opinion on two draft laws concerning ( a) contributions by the Oest erreichische 
Nationalbank ( OeNB ) to the General Subsidy Account of the I nternational Monetary Fund’s (IMF)  
Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT)  (hereinafter the ‘draft law on contributions to the PRGT’)  
and ( b) a bilateral loan agreement between the I MF and the OeNB  (hereinafter the ‘draft  law on the 
bilateral loan agreement’) . 
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 Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions
1, as the draft law relates to the  OeNB . In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.  
 
1. Purpose of the draft law s  
1.1 The draft law on contributions to the PRGT  
1.1.1 The IMF ’s Executive Board agreed in two resolutions passed on 24  February and 
28 Sep tember  2012 to distribute 700 million Special Drawing Rights ( SDR ) and SDR 1.750 million 
from IMF’s windfall gold sales profits to IMF m ember c ountries in proportion to their quota shares. 
The distributions are subject to IMF members’ satisfactory assurances that an amount equivalent to 
at least 90 % of the distributions will be made available to the PRGT
2. In this way , the IMF 
envisages raising further subsidy resources for the PRGT3.  
                                                           
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  Further information is available in the IMF’s press release No 12/368 of 28 September 2012, available on the IMF’s 
website at www.imf.org . 
3  See Opinion CON/2010/22 for more information regarding the establishment and funding of the PRGT; all ECB opinions 
are published on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu.  
ECB -PUBLIC 
2 1.1.2 The draft law authorises the OeNB to transfer 21.76 million SDR to the General Subsidy Account 
of the PRGT on behalf of Austria. The amount wi ll be transferred in two tranches , of SDR 6.22 
million  and SDR 15.54 million. The amount of the first tranche has already been distributed by the 
IMF to the OeNB as Austria’s share of th e IMF’s windfall gold sales profits and can therefore be 
transferred by the OeNB to the General Subsidy Account of the PRGT . However,  payment of t he 
second tranche is subject to the transfer of the equivalent amount to the OeNB by the IMF and, 
furthermore, to satisfactory assurances by IMF m ember countries that an amount equivalent to at 
least 90% of the second distribution of windfall gold sales profits will  be allocated to the PRGT .  
1.1.3 A separate statutory authorisation is required to enable the OeNB to tra nsfer the abovementioned 
amounts  of SDR 6.22 million and SDR 15.54 million to the PRGT, because Article 41 (2) of the 
Law on the OeNB prohibi ts Austria  from using OeNB funds, even indirectly, for any purpose 
without providing the equivalent value in gold or  foreign exchange. 
1.2 The draft law on the bilateral loan agreement  
1.2.1  The G20 Cannes Summit  of 4 November 2011 a dopted a  recommendation to temporarily replenish 
IMF funds in response to persistently weak economic growth. Based on Austria’s share of the IMF 
quota for the Member States whose currency is the euro , the Austrian contribution to this bilateral 
IMF funding is EUR 6.13 billion.  
1.2.2  The draft law implement s resolutions of the Euro Area  Heads of State or Government of 
9 December 2011 and the Union Finance Ministers dated 19 December 2011, respectively, 
whereby Member States whose currency is the euro  consented to provide EUR 150 billion to the 
IMF on the basis of bilateral agreements. It authorises the OeNB to grant the IMF a loan to the 
maximum amount of EUR 6.13 billion under a bilateral agreement on behalf of Austria.  
 
2. Monetary financing prohibition  
2.1 Several ECB opinions4 have noted that the tasks performed by a national central bank must comply 
with the monetary financing prohibition under Artic le 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 Articles 104 and 104b(1) of the Treaty5. Pursuant to Article 7 of 
Regulation (EC) No 3603/93, the financing by national central banks of obligations falling upon 
the public sector vis- à-vis the IMF is not regarded as a credit facility within the meaning of 
Article  123 of the Treaty. The fourteenth recital of Regulation (EC) No  3603/93 sets out the 
rationale of the exemption and confirms that it is appropriate to authorise the financing by the 
national central banks of obligations falling upon the public sector vis -à-vis the IMF, as this 
financing results in claims which have all the characteristics of r eserve assets.  
2.2 The draft law on contributions to the PRGT is similar to th e draft laws addressed in Opinion 
CON/2008/41 and CON/2010/22, where the ECB considered that the OeNB’s financing of 
                                                           
4  See, most recent ly, Opinions CON/2011/89, CON/2011/97, CON/2011/102, CON 2012/45 and CON/2012/65.  
5  OJ L 332, 31.12.1993, p. 1.  
ECB -PUBLIC 
3 Austrian contributions to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and the PRGT initiatives fell within 
the Article 7 exemption of Regulation (EC) No 3603/93. Similarly, the OeNB’s PRGT financing 
under the draft law should also be considered as falling under the Article 7 exemption and therefore 
should not be regarded as a form of monetary financing  prohibited by the Treaty . 
2.3 The draft law on the bilateral loan agreement  is similar to that addressed in Opinion CON/2010/40, 
where the ECB considered that the OeNB ’s authorisation to grant a loan to the IMF on behalf of 
Austria u nder the IMF’s New Arrangement to Borrow scheme was not a credit facility within the 
meaning of Article 104, but fell within the Article 7 exception of Regulation (EC) No 3603/936. 
The OeNB’s authority, under the draft law, to grant a bilateral loan to the  IMF should also be 
considered as falling under the Article 7 exception of Regulation (EC) No 3603/93 and should 
therefore not be regarded as a form of monetary financing prohibited by the Treaty7. 
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  
  Done at Frankfurt am Main, 4 March 2013.  
 
[signed]  
 
The President of the ECB  
Mario  DRAGHI  
                                                           
6  See also Opinion s CON/2011/10  and CON/2009/100.  
7  See also Opinions CON/2010/22, CON/2009/5, CON/2008/41 and CON/2005/2 9.