Opinion of the European Central Bank of 28 April 2005 at the request of Magyar Nemzeti Bank on a draft regulation on the requirement to provide transaction codes for its information system (CON/2005/10)
Date: 2005-04-28
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Hungary, balance of payments, data collection, information system, national law, statistics

EN 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 28 April 2005 

at the request of Magyar Nemzeti Bank 

on a draft regulation on the requirement to provide transaction codes for its information system  

(CON/2005/10) 

1. 

On  24  March  2005,  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  Magyar  Nemzeti 

Bank (MNB) for an opinion on a draft regulation on the requirement to provide transaction codes 

for its information system (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’). 

2. 

The  ECB’s  competence  to  deliver  an  opinion  is  based  on  the  fourth  indent  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  regulation  concerns  inter 

alia  the  collection  of  monetary,  financial,  banking,  payment  systems  and  balance  of  payments 

statistics.  In  accordance  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. 

3. 

The draft regulation relates to MNB’s central banking information system and to the data required 

by law from clients to be input into that system for MNB to be able to fulfil its tasks, including the 

compilation  of  balance  of  payments  statistics.  Once  the  draft  regulation  is  adopted,  Government 

Decree No 256/2001 (XII.18) on transaction codes for cross-border payments will be repealed. The 

main objective of the amendments proposed by the draft regulation is to clarify when transaction 

codes must be provided and why.  

4. 

Article  5.2  of  the  Statute  of  the  European  System  of  Central  Banks  and  of  the  European  Central 

Bank  provides  that  ‘the  national  central  banks  shall  carry  out,  to  the  extent  possible,  the  tasks 

described  in  Article  5.1’,  i.e.  ESCB  tasks  as  defined  by  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European 

Community  and  the  Statute.  Article  10  of  the  Treaty  requires  that  ‘Member  States  shall  take  all 

appropriate  measures  …  to  ensure  fulfilment  of  the  obligations  arising  out  of  this  Treaty’. 

Furthermore Article 47.2 of the Statute provides that the General Council (on which MNB is also 

represented) of the ECB must contribute to the collection of statistical information. 

1  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 

 
 
 
                                                      
5. 

Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical 
information by the European Central Bank2 recognises that while the statistical information needed 

to fulfil the ECB’s requirements is not the same for all Member States, non-participating Member 

States also have obligations in the statistical area and should make timely preparations for future 

participation in Stage Three of economic and monetary union. Article 4 requires all Member States 

to ‘organise themselves in the field of statistics and … fully cooperate with the ESCB in order to 

ensure  the  fulfilment  of  the  obligations  arising  out  of  Article  5  of  the  Statute’.  Recital  17  of  this 

Regulation  indicates  that  ‘this  fact  [that  the  statistical  information  needed  to  fulfil  the  ECB’s 

statistical reporting requirements is not the same for  the participating as for the non-participating 

Member  States],  together  with  Article  [10]  of  the  Treaty,  implies  an  obligation  to  design  and 

implement at the national level all the measures that Member States consider appropriate in order 

to  carry  out  the  collection  of  the  statistical  information  needed  to  fulfil  the  ECB’s  statistical 

reporting  requirements  and  the  timely  preparations  in  the  field  of  statistics  in  order  for  them  to 

become participating Member States’. 

6. 

Although  transaction  codes  are  generally  dealt  with  in  Member  States’  statistical  information 

reporting  systems,  the  ECB  is  concerned  that  Member  States  are  properly  prepared  to  meet  the 

ECB’s  requirements  in  the  field  of  balance  of  payments,  international  investment  position  and 

international reserves statistics. 

7. 

On  the  basis  of  the  above,  the  ECB  welcomes  the  initiative  to  adopt  the  draft  regulation,  which 

should assist MNB in collecting and compiling balance of payments statistics.  

8. 

In general, the ECB considers the lists of transaction codes proposed in the draft regulation to be 

broadly in line with internationally accepted standards. However, as regards the transaction codes 

list  to  be  indicated  by  clients  (Annex  I),  the  ECB  considers  the  list  of  balance  of  payment  codes 

less comprehensive than the list of transaction codes recommended by the Committee on Monetary, 

Financial  and  Balance  of  Payments  entitled  ‘Harmonised  code  list  for  balance  of  payments 

collection systems’ (2001), which is consistent with the International Monetary Fund standard list 

of  balance  of  payments  items  and  complies  with  all  ECB  requirements.  This  is  acceptable  if  the 

missing  codes  are  subsumed  in  other  codes  and  the  total  amounts  in  the  associated  transactions 

remain  relatively  low.  The  ECB  also  acknowledges  that  Hungary  has  other  data  sources  to 

complement  the  data  to  be  reported  under  this  regulation.  The  ECB  further  notes  that,  while 

Hungary’s balance of payments statistics rightly show financial derivatives in the financial account, 

they are included within the list of transaction codes for portfolio investment (Annex I).  

9. 

In connection with the list of country codes to be indicated by the reporting institutions (Annex II), 

groupings  are  acceptable  as  long  as  the  amounts  of  associated  transactions/positions  remain 

relatively  low  and  do  not  conflict  with  the  list  set  out  in  Table  9  of  Annex  II  to  Guideline 

ECB/2004/15  of  16  July  2004  on  the  statistical  reporting  requirements  of  the  European  Central 

2  

OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 

2 

                                                      
Bank  in  the  field  of  balance  of  payments  and  international  investment  position  statistics,  and  the 
international  reserves  template3.  The  ECB  welcomes  the  list’s  individual  identification  of  EU 

Member States outside the euro area. 

10.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  the  NCBs’  task  to  assess  whether  its  reporting  instructions  and  collection 

methods  at  national  level  are  the  most  efficient  and  effective  and  the  least  burdensome  for  the 

reporting  agents  concerned.  The  ECB  is  not  in  a  position  to  substitute  itself  for  the  NCBs  in 

fulfilment of this task. This also applies to the draft regulation. 

11.  The  ECB’s  present  comments  do  not  prejudice  any  later  assessment  of  the  Hungarian  statistical 

information system and its collection methods. 

12.  This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.  

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 28 April 2005. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Jean-Claude TRICHET 

3  

OJ L 354, 30.11.2004, p. 34. 

3