Opinion of the European Central Bank of 16 August 2012 on foreign trade reporting requirements (CON/2012/66)
Date: 2012-08-16
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Eurosystem, Germany, balance of payments, disclosure of information, foreign trade, national law, statistics

EN 

ECB-PUBLIC 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 16 August 2012  

on foreign trade reporting requirements 

(CON/2012/66) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On  28  June  2012,  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  Federal  Ministry  of 

Economics  and  Technology  for  an  opinion  on  the  draft  regulation  (hereinafter  the  ‘draft  regulation’) 
amending the Regulation on foreign trade1 (hereinafter the ‘RFT’). 

The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Article 127(4) and Article 282(5) of the Treaty 

on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union  and  the  third  and  fourth  indents  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  provisions2,  as  the  draft  regulation  relates  to  the  Deutsche 

Bundesbank and the collection and distribution of 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. 

1.  

Purpose of the draft regulation 

1.1  The draft regulation will adapt the reporting requirements under the RFT to international standards 

developed by the Committee on Balance of Payments Statistics of the International Monetary Fund 
(IMF)3  and  transposed  into  Union  law  under:  (a)  Commission  Regulation  (EU)  No  555/2012  of 

22 June  2012  amending  Regulation  (EC)  No  184/2005  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 

Council  on  Community  statistics  concerning  balance  of  payments,  international  trade  in  services 
and  foreign  direct  investment,  as  regards  the  update  of  data  requirements  and  definitions4,  and 

(b) Guideline  ECB/2011/23  of  9  December  2011  on  the  statistical  reporting  requirements  of  the 
European  Central  Bank  in  the  field  of  external  statistics5,  both  of  which  will  apply  from 

1 June 2014. 

1.2  Section 63 of the draft regulation also streamlines the RFT and inserts limited amendments related 

to the functioning of the Single Euro Payments Area. 

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Regulation on foreign trade, Bundesgesetzblatt I, 22.11.1993, p. 1934, 2493. 
OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
See  IMF  Committee  on  Balance  of  Payments  Statistics,  ‘IMF’s  Balance  of  Payments  and  International  Investment 
Position Manual, sixth Edition’, August 2011, available on the IMF’s website at www.imf.org. 
OJ L 166, 27.6.2012, p. 22. 
OJ L 65, 3.3.2012, p. 1. 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
ECB-PUBLIC 

2. 

General observations  

In accordance with Article 5.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European 

Central  Bank,  the  ECB,  assisted  by  the  national  central  banks,  collects  the  necessary  statistical 

information  in  order  to  undertake  the  tasks  of  the  ESCB.  As  stated  in  the  ‘Public  commitment  on 
European Statistics by the ESCB’6, the ECB attaches great importance to the quality of its statistics. This 

concerns,  inter  alia,  the  euro  area  balance  of  payments  and  international  investment  position  statistics 

whose aim is to support the ECB’s monetary policy and other Eurosystem tasks. Hence, the ECB broadly 

welcomes  this  draft  regulation  which  will  ensure  consistency  with  the  reporting  requirements  under 

Guideline  ECB/2011/23  and  facilitate  adherence  to  the  principles  of  the  ECB  Statistics  Quality 

Framework.  

3. 

Specific observations 

The ECB particularly welcomes the following amendments introduced by the draft regulation: 

(a)  Amendments  to  the  template  in  Annex  Z  4  of  the  RFT,  whereby  additional  information  is  to  be 

provided  on  the  International  Securities  Identification  Number  (ISIN)  code  and  on  the  nominal 

value/  number  of  shares,  with  respect  to  payments  for  direct  investments  denominated  in  shares. 

These amendments enable transactions to be more clearly distinguished between those that belong 

to  ‘direct  investment’  and  ‘portfolio  investment’,  as  required  in  Table  2  (Financial  Account)  of 

Annex II to Guideline ECB/2011/23; 

(b)  Amendments to Article 62(3) of the RFT and new templates introduced in Annex Z 5A regarding 

claims  and  liabilities  arising  from  financial  relationships  with  related  foreign  non-banks.  These 

templates  enable  the  three  types  of  direct  investment  relationships  required  under  section  6.1  of 
Annex  III  to  Guideline  ECB/2011/237  to  be  distinguished.  Furthermore,  the  new  currency 

breakdown  enables  a  more  accurate  compilation  of  derived  transactions  and  revaluations  due  to 

exchange  rate  changes  as  required  in  Table  2  (Financial  Account)  and  Table  4  of  Annex  II  to 

Guideline ECB/2011/23; 

(c)  Amendment  to  the  template  in  Annex  Z  5B,  which  replaces  annual  reporting  with  quarterly 

reporting  of  cross-border  positions  on  financial  derivatives  of  resident  non-banks,  as  required  in 
Table  4  of  Annex  II  to  Guideline  ECB/2011/23.  Consistent  with  its  previous  opinion8,  the  ECB 

welcomes the early introduction of the quarterly reporting obligations by the draft regulation. 

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All publications are available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
The  three  types  of  direct  investment  relationships  are:  (a)  direct  investors’  investment  in  direct investment  enterprises, 
(b) investments  from  the  direct  investment  enterprises  to  the  direct  investor  (reverse  investment),  and  (c)  investments 
between fellow enterprises. 
See paragraph 3 of Opinion CON/2009/97 which refers to Guideline ECB/2004/15 which was subsequently replaced by 
Guideline ECB/2011/23. 

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ECB-PUBLIC 

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 16 August 2012. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Mario DRAGHI 

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