EN
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
of 12 November 2002 
at the request of Sveriges Riksbank
on a draft legislative proposal to amend the Sveriges Riksbank Act (1988:1385) with regard to
the publication of interest terms
(CON/2002/28)
1. On 23 October 2002, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Sveriges
Riksbank for an opinion on a draft proposal to amend the Sveriges Riksbank Act with regard tothe publication of interest terms in connection with trading in deposits (the legislativeproposal).
2. 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 Decision98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the ECB by national authorities regardingdraft legislative provisions
1, as the legislative proposal contains provisions concerning Sveriges
Riksbank and the publication by the Riksbank of interest terms. In accordance with the firstsentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the GoverningCouncil of the ECB has adopted this opinion.
3. Some of the amendments to the Sveriges Riksbank Act in the legislative proposal refer to a
modification of the data collection system and to a clarification of the reporting requirementsfor balance-of-payments statistics. Some other amendments are proposed in order to abolish theliquidity requirement for securities that Sveriges Riksbank buys and sells under repurchasetransactions for monetary policy purposes as protection against counterparty default. Theseproposed changes (set out in Sections 1 and 2 of the legislative proposal) have already been thesubject of an earlier consultation and the ECB refers to its previous opinion in that matter(CON/2002/21).
4. The draft legislative proposal to amend the Sveriges Riksbank Act now under consideration
refers to a change with regard to the publication requirement concerning interest terms inconnection with trading in deposits. The explanation for the proposed change is set out inSection 3 of the draft legislative proposal and the proposed wording of the relevant legal
                                                
1OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.
2provision is contained in the second paragraph of Article 5 of Chapter 6 of the proposed draft
amendments to the Sveriges Riksbank Act. The explanatory Section 3 of the draft legislativeproposal states that Sveriges Riksbank is entitled to operate in the market for deposits, wherebythe trading in deposits is based on standardised amounts and durations. The Riksbanks right togrant credit and receive loans for monetary policy purposes also applies to trading in depositsand no legislative amendment is required in this respect. The explanatory part of the legislativeproposal also states that the amended legislation should reflect the fact that the publicationrequirement refers to generally applicable intere st terms and not the contractual interest terms
agreed with specific institutions. In view of these considerations, the legislative proposalamends the second paragraph of Article 5 of Chapter 6, of the Sveriges Riksbank Actaccordingly. The ECB has no objection to this proposed amendment to the Sveriges RiksbankAct and shares the Riksbanks view that the legal provision should clarify that the publicationrequirement refers to generally applicable interest terms.
5. The ECB confirms that it has no objection to the competent national authorities making this
opinion publicly available at their discretion.
Done at Frankfurt am Main on 12 November 2002.
The President of the ECB
[signed]
Willem F. DUISENBERG