Letter Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB), to Gediminas Šimkus, Chair of the Board, Lituvos bankas, regarding a request for an ECB opinion on the draft law on voluntary economic deployment of residents’ funds held in special current accounts at credit institutions
Date: 2026-08-05
Institutions: European Central Bank
Subjects: monetary policy, money

ECB-PUBLIC 

Frank Elderson  

Member of the Executive Board   

Mr Gediminas Šimkus 

Chair of the Board 

Lietuvos bankas 

Gedimino pr. 6 

LT-01103 Vilnius 

LITHUANIA 

Frankfurt am Main, 05 August 2026 

Contact person: Markas Puidokas 

Markas.Puidokas@ecb.europa.eu 

tel.: +49 162 2541772 

Request for an ECB opinion on the draft Republic of Lithuania Law on voluntary economic deployment 

of residents’ funds held in special current accounts at credit institutions  

Dear Chair Šimkus, 

Thank you for your letter of 10 July 2026 enclosing the request of the Board of the Lithuanian Parliament for 

an opinion of the European Central Bank (ECB) on the draft Republic of Lithuania Law on voluntary economic 

deployment  of  residents’  funds  held  in  special  current  accounts  at  credit  institutions 1  (hereinafter  the  ‘draft 

law’). 

Following a request from the Office of the President of Lithuania on 10 March 2026, the ECB adopted Opinion 

CON/2026/15  on  21  April  2026  on  the  remuneration  of  client  funds  held  in  current  accounts  with  credit 

institutions. In this context, as noted in the Guide to consultation of the ECB by national authorities regarding 

draft legislative provisions, the  obligation to consult the ECB  on  amendments to draft  legislative provisions 

which have already been submitted to the ECB for an opinion applies only to substantive amendments which 

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Lietuvos  Respublikos  savanoriško  gyventojų  lėšų  kredito  įstaigų  specialiosiose  einamosiose  sąskaitose  ekonominio 
įveiklinimo įstatymo projektas, TAR, XVP-1556, 2026-05-26. 

Address 
European Central Bank  
Sonnemannstrasse 20 
60314 Frankfurt am Main  
Germany 

Postal address 
European Central Bank  
60640 Frankfurt am Main 
Germany 

Tel.: +49 69 1344 0 
E-mail: info@ecb.europa.eu 
www.ecb.europa.eu 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ECB-PUBLIC 

affect the essence of the draft legislation 2. Where substantive new provisions are proposed after the ECB’s 

opinion has already been adopted, by analogy to the Court’s case-law on the requirement to reconsult Union 

institutions on amended draft legislation3, the ECB should be reconsulted in relation to those amendments in 

exceptional cases where the draft legislation has undergone substantial changes of a non-technical nature as 

compared with the version on which the ECB has previously been consulted. However, no further consultation 

is required if the amendments aim, in essence, to accommodate the view previously expressed by the ECB in 

its opinion.  

Following  careful  review  of  the  draft  law,  it  appears  that  it  does  not  introduce  amendments  that  affect  the 

essence of the draft law on which the ECB was previously consulted. Furthermore, the Lithuanian inflation 

component is removed from the criteria for determining the interest rate  under the amended version of the 

draft law. This takes into account the ECB’s opinion that the use of core inflation in Lithuania as an additional 

criterion for setting the facility’s interest rate could possibly undermine an efficient monetary policy transmission 

and the singleness of monetary policy. This point was specified by the ECB to achieve the intended purpose, 

inviting  the  Lithuanian  Government  to  consider  less  invasive  measures  to  incentivise  investments  in 

infrastructure or at least ensure that the interest rate under the proposed scheme is responsive at all times to 

changes in the ECB’s deposit facility rate. Therefore, the amended draft law aims to partially accommodate 

the view expressed by the ECB in its opinion4. 

Consequently, the ECB has decided not to adopt an opinion in the present case.  

The ECB appreciates that you have sent the draft law to the ECB for consultation on behalf of the Lithuanian 

Parliament and remains confident that the Lithuanian Parliament will continue to consult the ECB on future 

draft  Lithuanian  legislation  that  falls  within  the  ECB’s  fields  of  competence  under  the  Treaty  and  Council 

Decision 98/415/EC5. 

Yours sincerely, 

[signed] 

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See  section  3.2.2  of  the  Guide  to  consultation  of  the  European  Central  Bank  by  national  authorities  regarding  draft 
legislative provisions (April 2025), available on the ECB’s website at www.ecb.europa.eu.  

See  judgment  of  the  Court  of  Justice  of  15  July  1970,  Chemiefarma  v  Commission,  C-41/69,  ECLI:EU:C:1970:71, 
paragraph 3; judgment of the Court of Justice of 4 February 1982, Buyl v Commission, C-817/79, ECLI:EU:C:1982:36, 
paragraph 1; judgment of the Court of Justice of 10 June 1997, Parliament v Council, C-392/95, ECLI:EU:C:1997:289, 
paragraph 15; judgment of the Court of Justice of 11 November 1997,  Eurotunnel and Others v SeaFrance, C-408/95, 
ECLI:EU:C:1997:532, paragraph 46; and judgment of the Court of Justice of 25 September 2003, Océ van der Grinten NV 
v Commissioners of Inland Revenue, C-58/01 ECLI:EU:C:2003:495, paragraphs 100 and 102. 
See paragraph 3.4 of Opinion CON/2026/15. 

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, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/1998/415/oj). 

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