EN  ECB-PUBLIC   
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 31 October 2014  
on the legal framework for cooperative banks 
(CON/2014/78) 
 
Introduction and legal basis 
On 26 September 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Polish Minister for 
Finance for an opinion on a draft law amending the Law on the functioning of cooperative banks, their 
affiliations and affiliating banks and certain other laws (hereinafter the ‘draft law’). 
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 sixth indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC1, 
as the draft law relates to rules applicable to financia l institutions insofar as they materially influence the 
stability of financial institutions and markets. In acco rdance 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 
The primary aim of the draft law is to amend the legal framework for co operative banks in order to give 
effect to the streamlining resulting from Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of 
the Council2. To this end, the draft law amends the Law on the functioning of cooperative banks, their 
affiliations and affiliating banks3 and certain other laws.  
The main changes that go beyond the adaptations requi red to give effect to Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 
are as follows:  
(a) The draft law modifies the method of calculating Polish currency equivalents of amounts originally 
expressed in euro, such as own funds requirements. The draft law aligns this method with the method used for the calculatio n of the Polish public debt. 
(b) Under the draft law the possibility for a cooperati ve bank participating in an affiliation of 
cooperative banks to terminate its membership in  the affiliation will also be available for a 
cooperative bank that is a member of an institutional protection scheme. Such termination would be 
                                                 
1  Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42). 
2  Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements 
for credit institutions and investment firms and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (OJ L 176, 27.6.2013, p. 1).  
3   Consolidated text published in Dziennik Ustaw  (Dz. U.) of 2014, item 109.   
ECB-PUBLIC  
2 subject to meeting certain capital and prudential requirements corresponding with those provided 
for in Regulation (EU) No 575/2013. 
(c) The draft law includes a technical amendment to the definition of the term ‘affiliating bank’. The 
current list of such banks, whose function is to support the affiliation and to perform certain tasks 
on behalf of cooperative banks participating in the affiliation, will be replaced by a set of criteria 
and requirements that need to be met by a credit institution in order for it to be deemed an affiliating bank. 
 
2.  ECB comments 
The ECB has no comments as regards the draft legislation. 
 
This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   
Done at Frankfurt am Main, 31 October 2014. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Mario DRAGHI