Opinion of the European Central Bank of 24 August 2012 on reporting requirements for cross-border service transactions (CON/2012/67)
Date: 2012-08-24
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Austria, access to information, balance of payments, central bank, international trade, national law, provision of services, statistics

EN 

ECB-PUBLIC 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 24 August 2012  

on reporting requirements for cross-border service transactions  

(CON/2012/67) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On  1  August  2012,  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  Oesterreichische 

Nationalbank (OeNB) for an opinion on a balance of payments reporting regulation of the OeNB which 

governs the reporting of cross-border service transactions (hereinafter the ‘draft regulation’). 

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 as well as the third and 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  OeNB  and  the 

collection 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 replace  the  current  balance of  payments  regulation  (ZABIL  1/20092)  of 

the  OeNB  which  governs  the  reporting  of  cross-border  service  transactions.  The  draft  regulation 

also  implements  Article  6  of  the  Law  on  exchange  controls  2004,  under  which  the  OeNB  is 

responsible for compiling the Austrian balance of payments, the international investment position 

statistics,  the  direct  investment  statistics  and  all  statistics  regarding  cross-border  transactions  and 

positions  in  the  context  of  the  abovementioned  statistics  based  on  EU  regulations.  The  draft 

regulation  is  necessary  owing  to  amendments  under  Regulation  (EU)  No  555/2012  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 
investments,  as  regards  the  update  of  data  requirements  and  definitions3.  Although  not  explicitly 

mentioned  in  the  OeNB  request  accompanying  the  draft  regulation,  the  ECB  understands  that 

amendments  are  also  required  on  the  basis  of  standards  set  out  in  Guideline  ECB/2011/23  of  9 

1  
2  
3  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.  
Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung No 242, 10.12.2008, p. 32. 
OJ L 166, 27.6.2012, p. 22. 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
ECB-PUBLIC 

December 2011 on the statistical reporting requirements of the European Central Bank in the field 
of external statistics4. 

1.2  Due to enhanced OeNB access to the VAT Information Exchange System, the draft regulation will 

also  raise  the  thresholds  for  the  reporting  of  transactions  on  all  types  of  cross-border  business 

activity pertaining to services, by reporting agents in the non-financial corporate sector to a uniform 

level of EUR 500 000. 

1.3  Additionally, some minor technical amendments are made in the draft regulation. References and 

quotes shall reflect changes in the legal framework, reporting channels shall be adapted to reflect 

widespread  IT  use,  reporting  obligations  shall  be  redefined,  the  conceptual  reporting  framework 

shall  be  harmonized  and  the  reporting  requirements  applying  to  credit  institutions  and  insurance 

companies shall be specified. The draft regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 2013. 

2. 

General observation  

In accordance with Article 14.3 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and the European 

Central Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’), national central banks must act in accordance with 

the  guidelines  of  the  ECB.  The  ECB  generally  welcomes  the  draft  regulation,  which  will  ensure 

consistency with the reporting requirements under Guideline ECB/2011/23 following the basic principles 
of  the  ECB  Statistics  Quality  Framework5.  The  main  purpose  of  euro  area  balance  of  payments  and 

international investment position statistics is to support the ECB’s monetary policy and other Eurosystem 
tasks. Moreover, as stated in the Eurosystem’s mission statement6, accountability, transparency and good 

governance are important values supporting the integrity of the statistical functions defined by Article 5 

of the Statute of the ESCB. 

3. 

Specific observations 

3.1  The ECB welcomes the OeNB’s enhanced access to existing administrative information which has 
made necessary the removal of specific7 thresholds on cross-border service transactions in the draft 

regulation. The ECB notes that while these changes imply a more streamlined collection procedure, 

simplified guidelines and a reduced response burden for data compilers, it should be ensured that 
sufficiently precise data for the production of euro area cross-border statistics is maintained8. 

3.2  The ECB suggests the inclusion of the term ‘Activities of Holding Companies’ as sub-division 64.2 

in  the  table  providing  the  list  of  relevant  ‘Economic  Activities’  in  Section  1.6,  as  this  type  of 

activity is referred to in Sections 2 and 3 of the draft regulation.   

4  
5  
6  
7  
8  

OJ l 65, 3.3.2012, p. 1. 
Available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
Available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 
Thresholds were formerly differentiated by type of sector and whether they pertained to imports or exports. 
See  paragraph  7(i)  of  Opinion  CON/2005/23.  All  ECB  opinions  are  available  on  the  ECB’s  website  at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 

2 

 
 
                                                 
ECB-PUBLIC 

3.3  As data on cross-border services will continue to be collected on a quarterly and/or annual basis, 

the following ECB stance still applies:  the OeNB remains responsible for providing the ECB with 

aggregated data for the euro area monthly balance of payments statistics. This data must meet the 
quality standards set out in Guideline ECB/2011/239.  

3.4 

In the Appendix to the draft regulation, the ECB suggests that the four sub-items10 listed under the 

heading ‘7. Financial Services’ are clarified further, so that a direct connection can be made with 

the definitions for ‘Financial Services’ in Section 2.7 of Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 555/2012 

and  with  the  relevant  statistical  indicators  on  ‘Financial  Services’,  as  required  in  Table  2  of 

Annex II to Guideline ECB/2011/23.  

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 24 August 2012. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Mario DRAGHI 

9  

10  

See  paragraph  7(ii)  of  Opinion  CON/2005/23  on  a  previous  version  of  the  draft  regulation  on  the  reporting  of  cross-
border services (ZABIL 1/2005). Opinion CON/2005/23 refers to Guideline ECB/2004/15, which has subsequently been 
replaced by Guideline ECB/2011/23. 
The  four  sub-headings  are:  7.1:  Fees  for  securities  lending  and  gold  lending;  7.2:  Gross  transaction  volume  from 
securities sales to non-resident counterparties; 7.3: Gross transaction volume from securities purchases from non-resident 
counterparties; and 7.4: Other financial services.  

3