Opinion of the European Central Bank of 9 August 2005 at the request of De Nederlandsche Bank on a draft mandate order on financial institutions’ sector accounts and a draft cooperation agreement between the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek and De Nederlandsche Bank on sector accounts (CON/2005/27)
Date: 2005-08-09
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Netherlands, central bank, data collection, exchange of information, national law, statistics

EN 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 9 August 2005 

at the request of De Nederlandsche Bank 

on a draft mandate order on financial institutions’ sector accounts and a draft cooperation 

agreement between the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek and De Nederlandsche Bank on sector 

accounts 

(CON/2005/27) 

1. 

On  27  June  2005  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  De  Nederlandsche 

Bank  (DNB)  for  an  opinion  on  a  draft  mandate  order  on  financial  institutions’  sector  accounts 

(hereinafter  the  ‘Mandating  Order’)  and  a  draft  cooperation  agreement  between  the  Centraal 

Bureau  voor  de  Statistiek  (CBS)  and  DNB  on  sector  accounts  (hereinafter  the  ‘Cooperation 

Agreement’). 

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  legislative  proposal  contains 

provisions concerning the collection, compilation and distribution 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 ECB welcomes this consultation on the two connected measures implementing this transfer of 

competences and obligations between the two authorities. The Cooperation Agreement establishes 

a  cooperation  framework  between  DNB  and  the  CBS  in  the  field  of  financial  and  non-financial 

national  accounts  by  institutional  sector  defining  their  respective  responsibilities  in  terms  of  data 

collection,  compilation  of  the  accounts,  exchange  of  data  and  fulfilment  of  international 

obligations. The Mandating Order is a draft legislative provision which mandates DNB to collect 

such data from financial institutions on behalf of the CBS for the compilation of accounts and to 

impose administrative measures in the event of failure to comply with the corresponding reporting 

obligations, currently a CBS exclusive competence under the Wet op het Centraal bureau voor de 

1  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 

 
 
 
                                                      
 
statistiek  (Statistics  Netherlands  Act)  and  the  Besluit  gegevensverwerving  CBS  (Statistics 

Netherlands Data Collection Order).  

4. 

The  ECB  welcomes  the  initiative  laid  down  in  the  Mandating  Order  and  the  Cooperation 

Agreement  as  it  will  help  to  ensure  the  compilation  of  high  quality  quarterly  financial  accounts 

required  under  Guideline  ECB/2002/7  of  21  November  2001  on  the  statistical  reporting 

requirements of the European Central Bank in the field of quarterly financial accounts2 (hereinafter 

the ‘MUFA Guideline’). It is noted that the Cooperation Agreement complies with the provisions 

of  Article  5  of  the  MUFA  Guideline.  The  ECB  also  welcomes  the  fact  that  the  Cooperation 

Agreement provides for the compilation of integrated financial and non-financial accounts, in line 

with ECB requirements for euro area accounts by institutional sector. 

5. 

The Cooperation Agreement provides that DNB will entrust the CBS with the task of reporting to 

the ECB data on financial accounts compiled by the CBS on the basis of data reported to both DNB 

and the CBS. The ECB does not object in principle to DNB outsourcing its reporting obligations 

towards the ECB, provided certain legal requirements are met. In particular, DNB must retain full 

responsibility for all such activities, including the data’s overall consistency and the transmission 

of all relevant data to the ECB. Therefore, DNB must be able to check that the ECB’s statistical 

reporting requirements laid down in the MUFA Guideline are being fully met. In this context, DNB 

has to ensure that any future reporting requirements under the MUFA Guideline are  met  without 

any delay. In particular, the ECB notes that under Article 2(3) of the MUFA Guideline, DNB, or if 

so agreed the CBS, is obliged to report to the ECB readily available information on single major 

events  and  on  reasons  for  revisions,  in  addition  to  data  for  financial  assets  and  liabilities.  It  is 

therefore DNB’s responsibility to ensure that the Mandating Order and the Cooperation Agreement 

meet this requirement. 

6. 

The  ECB  takes  note  of  the  division  of  labour  between  the  two  institutions  in  respect  of  data 

collection as  laid down in Sections 3 and 4 of the Cooperation Agreement and in the Mandating 

Order. Further to the Mandating Order, all financial institutions will submit their statistical data to a 

single  institution,  namely  DNB.  This  may  further  streamline  the  burden  on  the  institutions 

concerned,  in  view  of  the  arrangements  between  DNB  and  the  CBS  that  have  already  been 

established in the fields of balance of payments and monetary statistics reporting. 

7. 

Section 7.1 of the Cooperation Agreement, in conjunction with Section 7.3, and Article 3(1)(g) of 

the Mandating Order, set out the confidentiality regime to be applied to the data collected by the 

respective  institutions.  In  particular,  Section  7.1  provides  that  ‘micro  information  shall  be  secret 

and  shall  not  be  provided  to  any  third  party’.  With  respect  to  data  handling  and  its  transmission 

2 

between  the  two  institutions,  the  ECB  welcomes  proper  protection  of  confidential  statistical 

information.  

8. 

Finally, under the ESCB’s internal arrangements it is not possible to share agendas and reports of 

meetings of ESCB advisory committees with third parties. The final sentence of Section 10.2 of the 

Cooperation Agreement needs to be amended to reflect this. 

9. 

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 9 August 2005. 

[ signed ] 

The President of the ECB 

Jean-Claude TRICHET 

2  

OJ L 334, 11.12.2002, p. 24. 

3