EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 25 March 2011 
on the abolition of the task of the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique of 
acting as central depositary of deeds of protest 
(CON/2011/28) 
 Introduction and legal basis
 
On 4 March 2011, the European Central Bank (ECB)  received a request from the Nationale Bank van 
België/Banque Nationale de Belgique (NBB), acting on behalf of the Belgian Ministry of Justice, for an 
opinion on a draft law abolishing the task of the Nationale Bank van Belg ië/Banque Nationale de 
Belgique of acting as central depositary of deeds of  protests and amending various provisions concerning 
deeds of protests (hereinafter the ‘draft law’) and a draft royal decree abolishing the task of the Nationale 
Bank van België/Banque Nationale de  Belgique of acting as central depositary of deeds of protests and 
amending various provisions concerning deeds of protests (hereinafter the ‘draft royal decree’) (the draft 
law and the draft royal decree are hereinafter collec tively referred to as the ‘draft legislation’).  
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 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 provisions1, as the draft legislation relates to the N BB. In accordance with the first sentence of 
Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Eur opean Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted 
this opinion. 
 1.  Purpose of the draft legislation 
1.1 The draft legislation will abolish
2 non European System of Centra l Banks related tasks currently 
entrusted to the NBB which concern: (a) the cen tralised processing of bills of exchange and 
promissory notes3, and (b) the NBB’s ancillary task of ac ting as central depositary of deeds of 
                                                 
1  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
2  See in particular Articles 8 to 11 of the draft law and Articles 1 to 7 of the draft royal decree. 
3  This system allows for eliminating the material transfer of  all bills of exchange and pr omissory notes indicating a bank 
account opened in the books of a credit inst itution established in Belgium, notably  by providing for their centralised 
presentation for payment at the Centre fo r Exchange and Clearing managed by the N BB (see in particular Article 1 of the 
Royal Decree of 16 July 1957 implementing Article 38, sec ond subparagraph, and Article 42 of the Coordinated Law on 
bills of exchange and promissory notes). In this contex t, a framework agreement was concluded between the NBB and 
the Belgian banking sector, which is to expire in 2011.  
2 protest4. The processing of bills of exchange and promi ssory notes will in the future be done in a 
decentralised manner5. The rules governing the instruments themselves will not be affected.  
1.2 The rationale behind the draft legislation is to be found essentially in: (a) the steady decline in the 
use of bills of exchange and promissory notes and, hence, of protests, (b) the costs that would need 
to be invested to modernise the IT system curren tly used for the centralised processing, and (c) the 
fact that, from a general point of view, the Belg ian banking sector tends to discourage the use of 
payment instruments such as paper-based cheques,  bills of exchange and promissory notes6.  
 2.  General observation 
The ECB has no objection to the draft legislation.  The ECB observes that, as pointed out in the 
explanatory memorandum, the decision not to encourag e the use of paper-based bills of exchange and 
promissory notes is in line with the European Co mmission’s position in favour of a gradual repositioning 
of paper-based payment instruments and their replacement by more efficient electronic payments
7.  
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 25 March 2011. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET 
                                                 
4  In case of non-payment of a bill of ex change or promissory note payable at th e Center for Exchange and Clearing, the 
NBB is also the authority with which the bailiffs draw up th e deed of protest (Article 2 of the Law of 3 June 1997 on 
protests and Article 2 of the implem enting Royal Decree of 15 September 1997) , and which subsequently makes data 
available to the relevant parties (Articles 4 and 9 of the Law of 3 June 1997). As central depositary, the NBB keeps the 
deed of protest or the certified copies thereo f (Article 4 and 8 of the Law of 3 June 1997). 
5  See Article 13 of the draft law, under which the bailiffs w ho draw up the deeds of protests will be required to send 
certified copies thereof to the competent Commercial Court. 
6  See the explanatory memorandum to  the draft law, pp. 1 and 2. 
7  See for instance the Commission’s Consultative pape r on SEPA Incentives, 13 Febr uary 2006, available at 
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/p ayments/docs/sepa/sepa-2006_02_13_en.pdf.