Opinion of the European Central Bank of 4 March 2013 on the Oesterreichische Nationalbank’s contributions to the International Monetary Fund’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and a bilateral loan agreement between the International Monetary Fund and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (CON/2013/16)
Date: 2013-03-04
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Austria, International Monetary Fund, bilateral agreement, central bank, loan, payment

EN 

ECB-PUBLIC 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 4 March 2013 

on the Oesterreichische Nationalbank’s contributions to the International Monetary Fund’s 

Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust and a bilateral loan agreement between the International 

Monetary Fund and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank 

(CON/2013/16) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On 31 January 2013, the European Central Bank (ECB) received requests from the Austrian Ministry of 

Finance  for  an  opinion  on  two  draft  laws  concerning  (a)  contributions  by  the  Oesterreichische 

Nationalbank  (OeNB)  to  the  General  Subsidy  Account  of  the  International  Monetary  Fund’s  (IMF) 

Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) (hereinafter the ‘draft law on contributions to the PRGT’) 

and  (b)  a  bilateral  loan  agreement  between  the  IMF  and  the  OeNB  (hereinafter  the  ‘draft  law  on  the 

bilateral loan agreement’). 

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

Functioning of the European Union 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  OeNB.  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 laws  

1.1  The draft law on contributions to the PRGT 

1.1.1  The 

IMF’s  Executive  Board  agreed 

in 

two  resolutions  passed  on  24 February  and 

28 September 2012 to distribute 700 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR) and SDR 1.750 million 

from IMF’s windfall gold sales profits to IMF member countries in proportion to their quota shares. 

The distributions are subject to IMF members’ satisfactory assurances that an amount equivalent to 
at  least  90%  of  the  distributions  will  be  made  available  to  the  PRGT2.  In  this  way,  the  IMF 
envisages raising further subsidy resources for the PRGT3.  

1  
2  

3  

OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
Further  information  is  available  in  the  IMF’s  press  release  No  12/368  of  28  September  2012,  available  on  the  IMF’s 
website at www.imf.org. 
See Opinion CON/2010/22 for more information regarding the establishment and funding of the PRGT; all ECB opinions 
are published on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu. 

 
 
 
 
                                                           
ECB-PUBLIC 

1.1.2  The draft law authorises the OeNB to transfer 21.76 million SDR to the General Subsidy Account 

of the  PRGT  on  behalf  of Austria. The  amount  will be  transferred in  two  tranches, of  SDR  6.22 

million and SDR 15.54 million. The amount of the first tranche has already been distributed by the 

IMF to the OeNB as Austria’s share of the IMF’s windfall gold sales profits and can therefore be 

transferred by the OeNB to the General Subsidy Account of the PRGT. However, payment of the 

second tranche  is  subject  to  the  transfer  of  the  equivalent  amount  to  the  OeNB  by  the  IMF  and, 

furthermore, to satisfactory assurances by IMF  member countries that an amount equivalent to at 

least 90% of the second distribution of windfall gold sales profits will be allocated to the PRGT.  

1.1.3  A separate statutory authorisation is required to enable the OeNB to transfer the abovementioned 

amounts of SDR 6.22 million and SDR 15.54 million to the PRGT, because Article 41(2) of the 

Law  on  the  OeNB  prohibits  Austria  from  using  OeNB  funds,  even  indirectly,  for  any  purpose 

without providing the equivalent value in gold or foreign exchange. 

1.2  The draft law on the bilateral loan agreement 

1.2.1  The G20 Cannes Summit of 4 November 2011 adopted a recommendation to temporarily replenish 

IMF funds in response to persistently weak economic growth. Based on Austria’s share of the IMF 

quota for the Member States whose currency is the euro, the Austrian contribution to this bilateral 

IMF funding is EUR 6.13 billion. 

1.2.2  The  draft  law  implements  resolutions  of  the  Euro  Area  Heads  of  State  or  Government  of 

9 December  2011  and  the  Union  Finance  Ministers  dated  19  December  2011,  respectively, 

whereby Member States whose currency is the euro consented to provide EUR 150 billion to the 

IMF  on  the  basis  of  bilateral  agreements.  It  authorises  the  OeNB  to  grant  the  IMF  a  loan  to  the 

maximum amount of EUR 6.13 billion under a bilateral agreement on behalf of Austria.  

2.  Monetary financing prohibition 
2.1  Several ECB opinions4 have noted that the tasks performed by a national central bank must comply 

with  the  monetary  financing  prohibition  under  Article  123  of  the Treaty  and  Council  Regulation 

(EC)  No 3603/93  of  13  December  1993  specifying  definitions  for  the  application  of  the 
prohibitions  referred  to  in  Articles  104  and  104b(1)  of  the  Treaty5.  Pursuant  to  Article  7  of 

Regulation  (EC)  No  3603/93,  the financing  by  national  central banks  of  obligations  falling  upon 

the  public  sector  vis-à-vis  the  IMF  is  not  regarded  as  a  credit  facility  within  the  meaning  of 

Article 123  of  the  Treaty.  The  fourteenth  recital  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  3603/93  sets  out  the 

rationale  of  the  exemption  and  confirms  that  it  is  appropriate  to  authorise  the  financing  by  the 

national  central  banks  of  obligations  falling  upon  the  public  sector  vis-à-vis  the  IMF,  as  this 

financing results in claims which have all the characteristics of reserve assets.  

2.2  The  draft  law  on  contributions  to  the  PRGT  is  similar  to  the  draft  laws  addressed  in  Opinion 

CON/2008/41  and  CON/2010/22,  where  the  ECB  considered  that  the  OeNB’s  financing  of 

4  
5  

See, most recently, Opinions CON/2011/89, CON/2011/97, CON/2011/102, CON 2012/45 and CON/2012/65. 
OJ L 332, 31.12.1993, p. 1. 

2 

 
                                                           
ECB-PUBLIC 

Austrian contributions to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and the PRGT initiatives fell within 

the Article 7 exemption of Regulation (EC) No 3603/93. Similarly, the OeNB’s PRGT financing 

under the draft law should also be considered as falling under the Article 7 exemption and therefore 

should not be regarded as a form of monetary financing prohibited by the Treaty. 

2.3  The draft law on the bilateral loan agreement is similar to that addressed in Opinion CON/2010/40, 

where the ECB considered that the OeNB’s authorisation to grant a loan to the IMF on behalf of 

Austria under the IMF’s New Arrangement to Borrow scheme was not a credit facility within the 
meaning of Article 104, but fell within the Article 7 exception of Regulation (EC) No 3603/936. 

The  OeNB’s  authority,  under  the  draft  law,  to  grant  a  bilateral  loan  to  the  IMF  should  also  be 

considered  as  falling  under  the  Article  7  exception  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  3603/93  and  should 
therefore not be regarded as a form of monetary financing prohibited by the Treaty7. 

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 4 March 2013. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Mario DRAGHI 

6  
7  

See also Opinions CON/2011/10 and CON/2009/100. 
See also Opinions CON/2010/22, CON/2009/5, CON/2008/41 and CON/2005/29. 

3