EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 25 April 2008 
at the request of Národná banka Slovenska on a draft law amending Law No 510/2002 Coll. on 
payment systems and on amendments to certain laws 
(CON/2008/18) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
On 11 March 2008 the European Central Bank (ECB) re ceived a request from Národná banka Slovenska 
(NBS) for an opinion on a draft law amending Law No 510/2002 Coll. on payment systems and on amendments to certain laws. On 10 April 2008 NBS sent the ECB a revised version of the draft law 
(hereinafter the ‘revised draft law’). 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the 
European Community and the second and fifth indents of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 
29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Ce ntral Bank by national authorities regarding draft 
legislative provisions
1, as the revised draft law relates to mean s of payment and payment and settlement 
systems. In accordance with the firs t 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 
The revised draft law amends
2 the Law on payment systems3 within the context of NBS’s preparations to 
connect to TARGET24 and implement the TARGET2 legal framework, including the 
TARGET2 Guideline5. The revised draft law also amends certain provisions governing the existing 
domestic payment system, although the revised draft la w does not address certain additional issues that it 
is envisaged will be governed by the Law on payment systems at a later stage6. This opinion therefore 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2   In line with the National Euro Changeover Plan for Slovaki a adopted by Government Resolution No 525 of 6 July 2005, 
as amended. 
3  Law No 510/2002 Coll. on the payment system an d on amendments to certain laws, as amended. 
4   Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system. 
5 Guideline ECB/2007/2 of 26 April 2007 on a Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer 
system (TARGET2) (OJ L 237, 8.9.2007, p. 1). 
6  For example, issues related to the im plementation of the Single European Paym ents Area as from 2010 or issues related 
to the transposition 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 Di rectives 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). 
 
2 focuses on the provisions of the Law on payment syst ems that relate to NBS’s migration to TARGET27. 
 
2. General observations 
The ECB welcomes the revised draft law as an import ant preparatory measure for the future migration of 
NBS to TARGET2. Whether NBS has properly impl emented the TARGET2 legal framework will be 
assessed separately by the ECB. 
 3. Specific observations Execution of payments through the European payment system 3.1 Article 3(2) of the revised draft law provid es for the possibility to execute domestic payments 
through a payment system operated by NBS, by an y other person authorised as the operator of a 
payment system, or through a ‘European payment syst em’, which is defined in Article 31(2) of the 
revised draft law as a component system of TARGET2. The ECB notes that TARGET2 ‘provides 
real-time gross settlement [RTGS] for payments in euro, with settlement in central bank money’
8. 
Moreover, TARGET2 is ‘legally structured as a multiplicity of RTGS systems’9 and each 
Eurosystem central bank operates its own TARGET 2 component system, which is designated as a 
system under national legislation implementing Directive  98/26/EC of the European Parliament 
and of the Council of 19 May 1998 on settlement finality in payment and securities settlement 
systems10 (hereinafter the ‘Settlement Finality Di rective’). A TARGET2 component system 
operated by NBS would therefore be designated as a system for the purposes of the Settlement 
Finality Directive and would already be covered by Article 3(2) of the Law on payment systems, as 
it would be operated by NBS. Nonetheless, the am endment of this provision as proposed in the 
draft law serves as clarification and as such the ECB has no objection. 
Participants in a payment system 3.2 The ECB notes that the terminology used in  the TARGET2 Guideline and the Law on payment 
systems is different with respect to entities offering clearing and settlement services and understands that the provisions of the Law on payment systems do not prevent such entities from connecting to the TARGET2 component system ope rated by NBS, unless the latter decides not to 
admit such entities to TARGET2. 
Payment system rules 3.3 Article 37(1) of the revised draft law provides a non-exhaustive list of items that must be addressed 
                                                 
7  See point 5.2 of ECB Opinion CON/2007/43 of 19 December 2007 at the request of the Slovak Ministry of Finance on a 
draft law on the introduction of the euro in Slovakia and on amendmen ts to certain laws. 
8   See Article 1(1) of the TARGET2 Guideline. 
9   See Article 1(2) of the TARGET2 Guideline. 
10   OJ L 166, 11.6.1998, p. 45. See also Artic le 3(1) and (2) of the TARGET2 Guideline. 
 
3 in the payment system rules, which includes defini ng ‘the moment of acceptance of an order by the 
payment system’. Further, Article 35 of the law defines the moment of irrevocability by operation 
of law (with reference to the moment of acceptance of a payment order) rather than by definition in 
the rules of the system. The ECB understands that according to Slovak legislation, the moment of 
acceptance of an order by the payment systems means the same as the ‘entry of a payment order’ under the Settlement Finality Directive. However,  for reasons of legal certainty, it would be 
welcome for the legislation to be explicit ly clarified with regard to this point. 
License to operate a payment system 3.4 Under Article 61(3) of the Law on payment system s, an entity applying for a license to operate a 
payment system governed by Slovak law must fulfil certain criteria, which include a requirement to 
be a joint-stock company with a registered office in Slovakia. In conjunction with the registration 
requirement, the ECB notes that the services offe red in TARGET2 are designed in accordance with 
the principle of an open market economy with free competition and with respect to the principle of 
equal treatment and non-discrimination when o ffering access to fund transfer services in 
TARGET2. Notwithstanding the fact that TARG ET2 is exempted from the above-mentioned 
license requirement, the national authorities s hould in general avoid measures which may 
discriminate against any entities on grounds of resi dence or place of establishment since this would 
be contrary to the Treaty and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank
11. Therefore, the ECB invites the national authorities to reconsider the 
requirement that an entity intending to operate a system governed by Slovak law has to be a joint-
stock company that has a registered office in Slovakia. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 25 April 2008. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
11   See Article 4 of the Treaty and Article 2 of the ESCB Statute.