Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions (codified version)'
Date: 1998-03-25
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: banking, codification of EU law, credit institution, freedom to provide services, right of establishment

25.5.98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 157/13

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a European Parliament
and Council Directive relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit
institutions (codified version)’

(98/C 157/03)

On 9 March 1998 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Article 198 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned
proposal.

The Section for Industry, Commerce, Crafts and Services, which was responsible for preparing
the Committee’s work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 4 March 1998. The rapporteur
was Mr Pelletier.

At its 353rd plenary session (meeting of 25 March 1998), the Economic and Social Committee
adopted the following opinion by 96 votes to one, with four abstentions.

1.

Introduction

2. Scope of codification

1.1. On 1 April 1987 the Commission decided to
instruct its staff to codify all legislative measures after
no more than ten amendments.

1.2.
The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edin-
burgh European Council in December 1992 confirmed
this, stressing the importance of legislative codification,
which must be undertaken in full compliance with the
normal Community legislative procedure.

Given that no changes of substance may be made
1.3.
to the instruments affected by legislative codification,
Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed, by
an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994,
that an accelerated procedure might be used for the
fast-track adoption of codification instruments.

The Economic and Social Committee can only
1.4.
welcome the effort to achieve transparency and accessi-
bility through codification. The various directives con-
cerned by the codification project have been substantially
amended on several occasions. It was therefore necessary
for the sake of clarity and coherence to codify these
directives by integrating them in a single text. Moreover,
these texts will be the references for the candidate
countries when they transpose the acquis communautai-
re into their national laws.

The present codification proposal concerns the

2.1.
following basic directives:

— 73/183/EEC: Abolition of restrictions on freedom of
establishment and freedom to provide services in
respect of self-employed activities of banks and other
financial institutions;

— 77/780/EEC: First banking directive;

— 89/299/EEC: Own funds of credit institutions;

— 89/646/EEC: Second banking directive;

— 89/647/EEC: Solvency ratio for credit institutions;

— 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a

consolidated basis;

— 92/121/EEC: Monitoring and control of

large

exposures of credit institutions.

It also concerns the following amending direc-

2.2.
tives:

2.2.1. D i r e c t i v e

7 7 / 7 8 0 / E E C — F i r s t

b a n k i n g d i r e c t i v e

— 85/345/EEC: Special provisions for Greece;

— 86/137/EEC: Deferred application for certain Mem-

ber States;

— 89/646/EEC: Second banking directive;

— 95/26/EEC: ‘Post BCCI’ (1) prudential supervision;

— 96/13/EEC: Permanent exclusion of certain credit

institutions.

1.5.
This exercise completes the communications
examined by the Economic and Social Committee with
the aim of clarifying the scope of the directives.

(1) BCCI: Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

C 157/14

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

25.5.98

2.2.2. D i r e c t i v e
f u n d s

8 9 / 2 9 9 / E E C — O w n

— 91/633/EEC: Treatment of funds for general banking

risks (FGBR);

— 92/16/EEC: Special provisions for mortgage credit

institutions;

2.3.
It is desirable that the picture be completed in
the near future by taking into account the following
directives adopted on credit institutions, listed by order
of priority:

— 93/6/EEC: on the capital adequacy of investment

firms and credit institutions;

— 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a

— 94/19/EC: on deposit-guarantee schemes;

consolidated basis.

2.2.3. D i r e c t i v e 8 9 / 6 4 6 / E E C — S e c o n d

b a n k i n g d i r e c t i v e ;

— 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a

consolidated basis;

— 95/26/EEC: ‘Post BCCI’ prudential supervision.

2.2.4. D i r e c t i v e 8 9 / 6 4 7 / E E C — S o l v e n c y

r a t i o

— 91/31/EEC: Definition of multilateral development

banks;

— 92/30/EEC: Supervision of credit institutions on a

consolidated basis;

— 94/7/EC: Definition of multilateral development

banks;

— 95/15/EC: Technical definition of ‘Zone A’;

— 95/67/EC: Definition of multilateral development

banks;

— 96/10/EC: Contractual netting.

Brussels, 25 March 1998.

— 91/308/EEC: on prevention of the use of the financial

system for the purpose of money laundering;

— 86/635/EEC: on the annual accounts and consoli-
dated accounts of banks and other financial insti-
tutions;

— 89/117/EEC: on the obligations of branches estab-
lished in a Member State of credit institutions and
financial institutions having their head offices outside
that Member State regarding the publication of
annual accounting documents.

2.3.1. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the legal limi-
tations of the codification procedure (no amendment of
substance and incorporation of the law as it stands), it
would without doubt be desirable to urge the Com-
mission to consider a recasting of the texts in force in
the future. This would be a more flexible and more
effective method.

2.3.2.
As the codified texts would be of use to
countries seeking EU membership, it is essential that
this codification project be adopted as rapidly as
possible.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Tom JENKINS