Opinion of the European Central Bank of 27 June 2014 on statistical reporting requirements in the field of payment statistics (CON/2014/47)
Date: 2014-06-27
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: Poland, central bank, disclosure of information, financial stability, national law, payment system, statistics

EN 

ECB-PUBLIC 

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 

of 27 June 2014 

on statistical reporting requirements in the field of payment statistics 

(CON/2014/47) 

Introduction and legal basis 

On  4  April  2014,  the  European  Central  Bank  (ECB)  received  a  request  from  the  Polish  Minister  for 

Finance for an opinion on a draft ordinance of the Minister for Finance on detailed scope of information 

referred  to  in  Article  14a-14c  of  the  Law  on  payment  services  which  is  to  be  transferred  to  Narodowy 

Bank  Polski  and  the  procedure  for  complying  with  the  reporting  obligation  (hereinafter  the  ‘draft 

ordinance’). 

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,  fourth  and  sixth  indents  of  Article  2(1)  of  Council 
Decision  98/415/EC1,  as  the  draft  law  relates  to  Narodowy  Bank  Polski  (NBP),  the  collection, 

compilation and distribution of monetary, financial, banking, payment systems and balance of payments 

statistics, and rules applicable to financial institutions insofar as they materially influence the stability of 

financial  institutions  and  markets.  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 ordinance 

1.1  The draft ordinance implements Article 14d of the Law of 19 August 2011 on payment services2, 

which authorises the Minister for Finance to impose on acquirers, electronic money institutions and 

payment instrument issuers obligations to report data to NBP, which NBP uses for the purposes of 

making  periodic  assessments  of  monetary  clearing  as  part  of  its  role  as  overseer  of  payment 

systems. 

1.2  The  draft  ordinance  will  replace  and  consolidate  three  implementing  ordinances  which  currently 

regulate the reporting obligations of acquirers, payment card issuers and electronic money 

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2 

Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions (OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42). 
Dziennik Ustaw (Dz. U.) of 2011 No 199, item 1175. 

 
 
 
 
                                                 
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institutions3. Additionally, the draft ordinance expands the scope of reporting to include payment 

instruments other than payment cards. 

1.3  The  draft  ordinance  also  aims  to  update  the  relevant  reporting  templates  to  take  account  of 
the  European  Central  Bank4  and 

(EU)  No  1409/2013 

(ECB/2013/43)  of 

Regulation 
Recommendation ECB/2013/445. 

2. 

General observations 

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

Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) provides that ‘national central banks shall carry out, to 

the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1’. These are the tasks of the European System 

of Central Banks (ESCB) defined in the Treaty and the Statute of the ESCB. Although regulations 

adopted  under  Article  34.1  of  the  Statute  of  the  ESCB  do  not  confer  any  rights  or  impose  any 

obligations  on  Member  States  that  have  not  adopted  the  euro  (hereinafter  the  ‘non-euro  area 

Member States’), Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB applies to all Member States, whether or not 
they have adopted the euro6. In addition, Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires 

all Member States to ‘organise themselves in the field of statistics and … fully cooperate with the 

ESCB in order to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations arising out of Article 5 of the Statute’. 

These  provisions  therefore  mean  that  non-euro  area  Member  States  are  under  an  obligation  to 

design  and  implement  at  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 States. 

2.2  

In this context, it is primarily the task of the national authorities of non-euro area 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. The 

ECB does not comment in detail on national reporting provisions as they may differ considerably 

between Member States, depending on various national and external factors. The ECB’s comments 

are therefore of a general nature only and are meant to serve as a guide, enabling Polish authorities 

to shape its reporting requirements in line with those of the Eurosystem in preparation for Poland’s 

adoption of the euro.  

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4 

5 

6  

The three ordinances were issued under the Law on electronic payment instruments, which was repealed with effect from 
7 October 2013 as part of the consolidation of payment services-related provisions in the Law on payment services. On 
that  consolidation,  see  Opinion  CON/2012/72.  All  ECB  Opinions  are  published  on  the  ECB’s  website  at 
www.ecb.europa.eu. 
Regulation  (EU)  No  1409/2013  of  the  European  Central  Bank  of  28  November  2013  on  payments  statistics 
(ECB/2013/43) (OJ L 352, 24.12.2013, p. 18). 
Recommendation of the European Central Bank of 28 November 2013 on payments statistics (ECB/2013/44) (OJ C 5, 
9.1.2014, p. 1). 
See recital 17 in the preamble to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of 
statistical information by the European Central Bank (OJ L 318, 27.11.1998, p. 8).  

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3. 

Specific observations and technical comments 

3.1  The ECB welcomes the consolidation of the implementing provisions on reporting obligations in 

the field of payment statistics for a certain part of the reporting population in a single act, as it 

will  increase  the  clarity  and  consistency  of  interpretation  and  application  of  the  reporting 

obligations.  

3.2  The ECB also welcomes the statement by the Polish authorities that the draft ordinance aims to 

align the statistical reporting requirements in Poland in the field of payment statistics with relevant 

parts  of  the  ECB’s  requirements,  in  particular  as  laid  down  in  Regulation  (EU)  No  1409/2013 

(ECB/2013/43)  and  Recommendation  ECB/2013/44.  Achieving  consistency  with  the  ECB’s 

statistical standards and requirements will enable the reporting population to become familiar with 

the statistical reporting regime that will apply once Poland adopts the euro. With this in mind, the 

ECB  takes  the  view  that  further  alignments  with  Regulation  (EU)  No  1409/2013  (ECB/2013/43) 

might be considered worthwhile as regards: (i) the adoption in template FN.19 of a geographical 

breakdown  similar  to  Table  3  in  Annex  III  to  that  Regulation;  (ii)  a  possible  distinction  between 

point-of-sale  (POS)  and  non-POS  terminals  in  template  ST.03;  and  (iii)  a  possible  inclusion  of 

information on the general structure of payment statistics and data definitions similar to Annexes I 

and  II  to  that  Regulation.  In  addition,  the  ECB  notes  that  the  reporting  of  payment  statistics  by 

payment system operators does not fall within the scope of the draft ordinance, as this information 
is collected under different national provisions7.  

3.3.  The  ECB  welcomes  the  fact  that  the  draft  ordinance  includes  provisions  for  collecting  detailed 

information on payment instruments for oversight purposes which is in most aspects very similar 

to,  or  even  more  detailed  than  (e.g.  in  respect  of  EMV,  e-money  and  mobile  payments),  the 

corresponding  Eurosystem  scheme  of  data  collection.  The  ECB  observes  that  no  breakdown  per 

country of foreign fraudulent transactions appears to be included. As  a result, in this respect, the 

Polish authorities would have no detailed information on the geographical origin of the fraud. In 

addition,  the  draft  ordinance  appears  not  to  include a  breakdown  of  ATM  cash  withdrawal  fraud 

into  categories  (‘lost  and  stolen’,  ‘card  not  received’,  ‘counterfeit’,  ‘other’),  whereas  this 

breakdown is included in relation to e-money. The ECB recommends introducing a differentiation 

in the data collection distinguishing fraudulent transactions resulting from mail or telephone order 

from transactions of that kind made via the Internet. Such differentiation would be advantageous as 

Internet fraud, in particular, is increasing substantially. Admittedly, however, this also remains an 

optional breakdown under the current Eurosystem scheme for data collection.  

7  

The  relevant  provisions  are  Article  16  of  the  Law  on  settlement  finality  in  payment  systems  and  securities  settlement 
systems and the rules for the supervision of such systems (Dz. U. of 2010 No 112, item 743) and Article 23(2a) of the 
Law on Narodowy Bank Polski (consolidated text: Dz. U. of 2013, item 908). 

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3.4  The above comments do not prejudice any future ECB assessment relating to the reporting scheme 

for payment statistics in Poland. 

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

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 27 June 2014. 

[signed] 

The President of the ECB 

Mario DRAGHI 

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