Opinion of the European Central Bank of 8 August 2007 at the request of Banca Naţională a României on a draft regulation concerning statistical reporting of assets and liabilities recorded on the balance sheet of non-banking financial institutions (CON/2007/24)
Date: 2007-08-08
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Romania, balance sheet, data collection, national law, statistics

EN 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 8 August 2007  

at the request of Banca Naţională a României 

on a draft regulation concerning statistical reporting of assets and liabilities recorded  

on the balance sheet of non-banking financial institutions 

(CON/2007/24) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On 12 July 2007 the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from Banca Naţională a României 

(BNR)  for  an  opinion  on  a  draft  regulation  concerning  statistical  reporting  of  assets  and  liabilities 

recorded on the balance sheet of non-banking financial institutions (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’). 

The  ECB’s  competence  to  deliver  an  opinion  is  based  on  Article  105(4)  of  the  Treaty  establishing  the 

European  Community  and  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  relates  to  the  collection,  compilation  and  distribution  of  monetary, 

financial  and  banking  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. 

1.   Purpose of the draft regulation 

1.1  The draft regulation is aimed at aligning statistical reporting requirements in the field of money and 

banking  statistics  with  Guideline  ECB/2003/2  of  6  February  2003  concerning  certain  statistical 

reporting  requirements  of  the  European  Central  Bank  and  the  procedures  for  reporting  by  the 
national  central  banks  of  statistical  information  in  the  field  of  money  and  banking  statistics2. 

Guideline  ECB/2003/2  is  one  of  the  key  legal  instruments  relating  to  the  provision  of  monetary, 

financial  institutions  and  markets  statistics.  The  ECB  is  currently  preparing  a  recast  of  Guideline 

ECB/2003/2 to make it more readable and user-friendly for its addressees and users.  

1.2   The  draft  regulation  sets  up  a  legal  framework  that  will  ensure  the  collection  of  statistical 

information  necessary  for  analysing  the  credit  activity  of  non-banking  financial  institutions  in 

Romania.  In  particular,  the  draft  regulation  requires  non-banking  financial  institutions  that  are 

registered in the General Register maintained by BNR to report quarterly statistical data on assets 

1  
2  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
OJ L 241, 26.9.2003, p. 1.  

 
 
 
 
                                                 
and liabilities recorded on their balance sheet. The draft regulation is expected to enter into force on 

1 December 2007 so that statistical data relating to the financial year 2007 can be collected.  

2.  General observations 

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

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

in Article 5.1’, which are the tasks of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as defined by 

the Treaty and the Statute. Article 43.1 of the Statute implies that legal instruments adopted by the 

ECB for the fulfilment of its statistical reporting requirements do not confer any rights or impose 

any obligations on the non-participating Member States.  

2.2  At the same time, Article 47.2 of the Statute states that the ECB’s General Council is required to 

contribute  to  the  collection  of  statistical  information  as  referred  to  in  Article  5  of  the  Statute.  In 

addition,  Article  10  of  the  Treaty  requires  Member  States  to  ‘take  all  appropriate  measures  ...  to 

ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaty’ and, more specifically, Article 4 of 

Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical 
information by the European Central Bank3 requires all Member States to ‘organise themselves in 

the field of statistics … and fully co-operate with the ESCB in order to ensure the fulfilment of the 

obligations  arising  out  of  Article  5  of  the  Statute’.  These  provisions,  therefore,  imply  that  non-

participating Member States are under an obligation to design and implement, at the national level, 

all measures they consider appropriate to carry out the collection of statistical information needed 

to fulfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements and to make timely preparations in the field of 
statistics in order for them to become participating Member States4. 

2.3 

In this context, it is primarily the task of the national authorities of non-participating Member States 

to  determine  which  detailed  reporting  requirements  and  collection  methods  are  the  most  efficient 

and effective at the national level and the least burdensome for the reporting population concerned. 

On this basis, the ECB welcomes the draft regulation which is aimed at aligning BNR’s statistical 

reporting  requirements  for  non-banking  financial  institutions  with  the  ECB’s  statistical  reporting 

requirements for financial corporations. 

2.4  The  ECB  notes  that  the  draft  regulation  forms  part  of  the  new  legal  framework  which  was 

introduced by the new law on non-banking financial institutions. The ECB has already provided its 
opinion on this new law5. 

3  
4  

5  

OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8. 
See ECB Opinion CON/2005/52 of 5 December 2005 at the request of Magyar Nemzeti Bank on a draft regulation on the 
scope of information to be supplied to the central bank’s information system and on the method and time limits for data 
supply and ECB Opinion CON/2005/49 of 30 November 2005 at the request of Česká národní banka on a draft provision 
concerning the submission of statements by banks and foreign bank branches to Česká národní banka. 
See ECB Opinion CON/2007/23 of 2 August 2007 at the request of Banca Naţională a României on a draft law on non-
banking financial institutions. 

2 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
3.   Technical comments 

3.1   The  ECB  considers  that  BNR  should  closely  monitor  the  activities  of  non-banking  financial 

corporations and ensure the inclusion of the entire sectorial breakdown in Appendix 1 to the draft 

regulation,  in  accordance  with  Guideline  ECB/2003/2.  The  ECB  also  recommends  that  loans  for 

health services (Article 3 (e1.1) of the draft regulation) be classified as ‘credits for other purposes’. 

In  addition,  the  ECB  notes  the  following  differences  between  the  ECB’s  statistical  reporting 

framework and the draft regulation: (i) while Guideline ECB/2003/2 requires that securities other 

than shares, shares and other equity held by financial corporations be reported at market value, the 

draft  regulation  does  not  lay  down  such  requirements;  and  (ii)  according  to  asset  categories  in 

Annex  I,  Part  3  of  Regulation  ECB/2001/13  of  22  November  2001  concerning  the  consolidated 
balance  sheet  of  the  monetary  financial  institutions  sector6,  loans  granted  to  households  for  the 

purpose of education (Article 3 (e1.1) of the draft regulation) are classified as ‘other loans’ and not 

as ‘consumer credits’. 

3.2  This  opinion  does  not  prejudice  any  future  ECB  assessment  relating  to  the  reporting  scheme  for 

statistics on balance sheet assets and liabilities of non-banking financial corporations applicable in 

Romania. 

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 8 August 2007. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Jean-Claude TRICHET 

6  

OJ L 333, 17.12.2001, p. 1. 

3