WRITTEN QUESTION E-1851/02

by Gabriele Stauner (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(28 June 2002)

Subject: Commission bank accounts

1. Can the Commission forward a list of the names of all banks via which payments are made from and into the Union budget?

2. For each bank, can the Commission say what the volume of payments was in both 2001 and 2000?

3. Can the Commission say when, according to what criteria and under what procedure those banks were selected?

4. Can the Commission say whether, in the process, the directives on the award of public services contracts and/or the contract award rules of the Community's Financial Regulation were observed?

Answer given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(23 September 2002)

1. The following banks within the Union are dealing as of 2 September 2002 with payments from and revenue into the budget:

- Central banks:

- Banque Centrale du Luxembourg;

- Banque de France;

- Banque Nationale de Belgique;

- Banco de Portugal;

- Banco de España;

- Banca d'Italia;

- Bank of England;

- Bank of Greece;

- Central Bank of Ireland;

- De Nederlandsche Bank;

- Deutsche Bundesbank;

- Danmarks National Bank;

- Sveriges Riksbank;

- Suomen Pankki;

- National Bank of Norway;

- Liechtensteinische Landesbank;

- Central Bank of Iceland;

- European Investment Bank;

- Commercial banks;

- Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA (B);

- Fortis Banque SA (B);

- KBC Bank NV (B);

- Nordea Bank Danmark A/S (DK);

- Commerzbank AG (D);

- Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (F);

- EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA (GR);

- Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (E);

- Bank of Ireland (IRL);

- Banca Popolare di Sondrio (I);

- Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (I);

- Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat (L);

- ABN AMRO Bank NV (NL);

- Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (AT);

- Banco Totta e Açores (P);

- Okobank (FI);

- Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SE);

- Postgirot Bank (SE);

- Lloyds TSB Bank plc (UK).

In addition to these bank accounts, there are accounts with the national treasuries according to the own resources Regulation(1). To these accounts the own resources are credited by Member States, and they are used for payments to government entities, in particular the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF) and in some cases structural funds payments.

Some Member States have designated the central bank to keep the own resources account.

2. The Commission considers that, in order to protect professional secrecy and business relations and, so as not to undermine the protection of the commercial interests of the undertakings concerned, the information requested by this part of the question should not be disclosed.

3. Central bank accounts

As it is not possible to transfer funds directly to and from national treasuries, which are not acting as banks, central bank accounts are necessary. They are used to make transfers to and from the national treasury accounts, as well as for replenishing the commercial bank accounts. In some Member States these accounts are also used for structural funds payments. They are opened when the respective Member State joins the Union.

Commercial bank accounts

The Commission has an account or accounts with at least one commercial bank in each Member State to execute payments to beneficiaries whose bank account is domiciled in that Member State. These accounts are euro accounts, except for non-euro countries where there are also accounts in national currency.

These banks have been selected by open tender procedure and submitted to the Advisory Committee on Procurement and Contracts (ACPC), even if with regard of the threshold (due to low charges) this would not have been necessary.

The present contracts entered into effect at the following dates:

- Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA: 22/03/1998;

- Fortis Banque SA: 22/03/1998;

- KBC Bank NV: 22/03/1998;

- Nordea Bank Danmark A/S: 01/09/1997;

- Commerzbank AG: 01/03/1998;

- Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel: 01/09/1997;

- EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA: 01/03/1999;

- Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria: 01/03/1999;

- Bank of Irleand: 01/03/1998;

- Banca Popolare di Sondrio: 01/04/1998;

- Banca Nazionale del Lavoro: 01/04/1998;

- Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat: 15/08/1998;

- ABN AMRO Bank NV: 01/07/1998;

- Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG: 01/01/2000;

- Banco Totta e Açores: 01/03/1998;

- Okobank: 01/01/2000;

- Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken: 01/07/2000;

- Postgirot Bank: 20/04/1998;

- Lloyds TSB Bank plc: 11/03/1998.

Only offers by banks meeting the criterion of a short term rating of best category in the country concerned, obtained from one of the main rating agencies (Moodys, Standard & Poors, Fitch), are admitted.

Banks must meet various technical requirements, in particular handling payments transmitted to them by the Commission via SWIFT and sending statements of operations back to the Commission via SWIFT.

The evaluation of the valid offers is done by a weighting of quantitative (80 %) and qualitative (20 %) criteria. Quantitative criteria are the amounts for credit interest and bank charges, while qualitative criteria are the automatisation of payment handling, size of payment reference fields and implementation delays.

4. The answer is yes. Besides the service itself checking, the ACPC has checked in each case that the procurement directives and the Financial Regulation have been respected.

(1) Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000 implementing Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom on the system of the Communities' own resources OJ L 130, 31.5.2000.