Opinion of the European Monetary Institute on a consultation from the Belgian Ministry of Finance under Article 109f (6) of the Treaty establishing the European Community (the “Treaty”) and Article 5.3 of the Statute of the EMI as elaborated in the Council Decision of 22 November 1993 (93/717/EC) (the “Decision”) on a draft law amending the law of 11 January 1993 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for purposes of money laundering (the “draft law”) (CON/97/04)
Date: 1997-07-10
Institutions: European Monetary Institute
Subjects: Belgium, fight against crime, financial stability, money, money laundering, national law, payment system

GS/LD/97/416

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN MONETARY INSTITUTE

on a consultation from the Belgian Ministry of Finance under Article 109f (6) of the Treaty establishing

the European Community (the “Treaty”) and Article 5.3 of the Statute of the EMI as elaborated in the

Council Decision of 22 November 1993 (93/717/EC) (the “Decision”) on a draft law amending the law

of  11  January  1993  on  the  prevention  of  the  use  of  the  financial  system  for  purposes  of  money

laundering (the “draft law”)

CON/97/04

1.

The present opinion was requested by the Belgian Ministry of Finance on 19 March 1997 which

submitted  the  draft  law  together  with  a  commentary  on  the  Articles  thereof  to  the  EMI.  The

scope  of  the  consultation  was  afterwards  (in  May  1997)  clarified  as  to  be  confined  to  two

Articles of the draft law, namely:

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Article  13  which  states  that  where  a  notarial  deed  records  a  transaction  the  amount  of

which is ECU 25,000 or more, the payment of this sum must be carried out in the form of

a transfer or cheque; and

Article 30 which intends to confine the provision of “money remittance services” mainly to

supervised  financial  institutions  and  to  the  persons  registered  by  virtue  of  Article  139  of

the  law  of  6  April  1995  on  the  secondary  markets,  the  legal  status  and  supervision  of

investment firms, intermediaries and investment advisers.

2.

The  EMI’s  competence  to  deliver  an  opinion  is  based  on  Article  1.1,  first,  fourth  and  fifth

indents, of the Decision, as the draft law concerns (i) means of payment, (ii) payment systems, in

particular for cross-border transactions and (iii) rules applicable to financial institutions in so far

as they influence the stability of financial institutions and markets.

3.

The  EMI  notes  that  the  restriction  on  the  legal  tender  status  of  banknotes  as  laid  down  in

Article  13  of  the  draft  is  not  incompatible  with  principles  which  have  been  established  at  a

Community  level.  Indeed,  the  draft  Council  Regulation  under  Article  109l  (4)  of  the  Treaty

containing  certain  provisions  relating  to  the  introduction  of  the  euro  confirms  explicitly  in

recital 19 that limitation on payments in notes and coins established by Member States for public

reasons,  are  not  incompatible  with  the  status  of  legal  tender  of  euro  banknotes  and  coins,

provided that other lawful means for the settlement of monetary debts are available. Such means

are indeed available in Belgium in the form of book transfers or cheques.

4.

In addition, the restriction, for money laundering purposes, with regard to those parties which are

entitled to provide money remittance services as laid down in Article 30 of the draft law does not

encounter any reservations from the EMI’s point of view.

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5.

The EMI has no objection to this opinion being made public.

10 July 1997

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