Opinion of the European Central Bank of 1 September 2009 on the remuneration of the Treasury availability account held with the Banca d'Italia (CON/2009/69)
Date: 2009-09-01
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Italy, Treasury, central bank, interest, national law

EN 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 1 September 2009 

on the remuneration of the Treasury availability account held with the Banca d'Italia  

(CON/2009/69) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On  30  July  2007  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  Italian  Ministry  of 

Economic Affairs and Finance (hereinafter the ‘MEF’) for an opinion on a draft law on accounting and 

public  finance  (hereinafter  the  ‘draft  law’)  and  specifically  on  Article  48  thereof  (hereinafter  the  ‘draft 

article’).  

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

European Community and the third 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  law  relates  to  the  Banca  d’Italia.  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. 

The  draft  law  was  approved  on  24  June  2009  by  the  Senate  of  the  Republic  and  transmitted  to  the 

Chamber of Deputies for its approval and adoption. The subject of this opinion is the version of Article 48 

of the draft law that the consulting authority sent to the ECB with its consultation request. 

1. 

Purpose of the draft article 

1.1  The draft article contains provisions implementing the structural reform, which was initiated at the 

end  of  2007,  of  the  Treasury  availability  accounts  held  with  the  Banca  d’Italia,  regulated  by  the 

Law on consolidation of legislative provisions and regulations on public debt (hereinafter the ‘2003 
Consolidated  Law’)2.  The  draft  article  amends  once  more  Article  5(5)  of  the  2003  Consolidated 

Law, which relates to the conditions under which the availability account is held and, in particular, 

its remuneration regime. According to the draft article, the conditions concerning the maintenance 

and  remuneration  of  the  account  will  be  established  by  an  agreement  between  the  MEF  and  the 

Banca  d’Italia  and  will  be  linked  to  market  parameters.  The  draft  article  also  amends  provisions 

concerning  the  remuneration  of  other  accounts  held  by  the  Treasury  with  the  Banca  d’Italia  and 

lays down transitional provisions for the period preceding the entry into force of the new regime. 

1  
2  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
Presidential Decree No 398 of 30 December 2003 (Gazzetta Ufficiale No 57, 9.3.2004, Supplemento ordinario). 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
Furthermore,  it  provides  that  accounting  methods  and  criteria  concerning  the  transactions 

connected to the abovementioned accounts will be determined by ministerial decree. 

1.2  The  ECB  has  already  been  consulted  twice  by  the  MEF  on  draft  legislative  provisions  related  to 

Article  5(5)  of  the  2003  Consolidated  Law,  which  were  aimed  at  initiating  and  improving  the 

reform of the maintenance and remuneration regime of the Treasury availability account held with 
the Banca d’Italia3. The first consultation concerned amendments to Article 5(5) by the then draft 
Article  2(39)  of  the  2008  Budget  Law4;  the  second  consultation  request  was  received  in 

February 2009  and  referred  to  a  draft  ministerial  decree  containing  amendments  to  the  OPTES 
procedures5.  On  these  occasions,  the  ECB  analysed  the  draft  provisions  intended  to  amend 

Article 5(5) from the point of view of compliance with the prohibition of monetary financing and 

with  regard  to  implementation  of  monetary  policy.  It  generally  welcomed  the  efforts  made  to 

address  the  problematic  provisions  of  the  legislation  in  force,  but  also  called  on  the  Italian 

Government  to  undertake  further  legislative  change  to  complete  the  structural  reform  of  the 

availability  account  in  a  way  that  would  meet  Treaty  requirements  regarding  the  prohibition  of 

monetary financing.  

2. 

General observations 

Compliance of the legislation with the prohibition of monetary financing  

2.1  The ECB welcomes the fact that paragraph 1 of the draft article amends Article 5(5) of the 2003 

Consolidated Law by making reference to an agreement between the MEF and the Banca d’Italia, 

to  be  concluded  within  three  months  of  the  entry  into  force  of  the  draft  law,  under  which  the 

conditions of maintenance and remuneration of the availability account are to be established. Most 

importantly, the remuneration rate that the Banca d’Italia will pay is linked to market parameters.   

2.2   The ECB had already identified in its 2008 opinion that the legislation then in force, regulating the 

account held by the Treasury with the Banca d’Italia, did not contain provisions on the maturity of 

deposits and, consequently, did not explicitly correlate the remuneration rate of the deposits with 

their  maturity.  This  meant  that  the  account  arrangement  was  constructed  in  a  way  that  did  not 

exclude the possibility of Treasury deposit remuneration rates being higher than the market rates, in 

particular for the remuneration of overnight deposits. Such a remuneration rate would contravene 
the  objectives  of  the  monetary  financing  prohibition  under  the  Treaty6.  The  attempt  to  amend 

Article  5(5)  in  order  to  address  this  issue  was  represented  by  the  then  draft  Article  2(39)  of  the 

2008 Budget Law, referred to above, which contained a provision which would have introduced a 

reference to market parameters regarding the remuneration of the account. However, this reference 

was deleted by the Parliament. The ECB, in the opinion given on the then draft Article 2(39) of the 

3  

4  
5  
6  

See  Opinions  CON/2008/10  and  CON/2009/23.  All  ECB  opinions  are  published  on  the  ECB  website  at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
Law No 244 of 24 December 2007 (Gazzetta Ufficiale No 300, 28.12.2007, Supplemento ordinario). 
At the present time, the draft ministerial decree has not been adopted. 
See paragraph 3.4.2 of Opinion CON/2008/10.  

2 

 
                                                 
2008  Budget  Law,  expressed  its  concerns  in  this  regard7  and  insisted,  on  the  occasion  of  its 

subsequent  opinion  on  the  draft  ministerial  decree  concerning  the  OPTES  procedures  that,  until 

appropriate amendments to Article 5(5) were introduced, it would continue to consider the Italian 
legislation in force as incompatible with the prohibition of monetary financing8.   

2.3  The ECB is therefore pleased to note that paragraph 1 of the draft article reintroduces a reference to 

market parameters, to which the interest rate to be paid by the Banca d’Italia will be linked. The 

ECB  considers  that  this  amendment  would  overcome  the  incompatibility  with  regard  to  the 

prohibition of monetary financing referred to in the previous paragraph.  

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 1 September 2009. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Jean-Claude TRICHET 

7  
8  

See paragraph 3.4.3 of Opinion CON/2008/10. 
See paragraph 2.1 of Opinion CON/2009/23. 

3