Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
,
Having regard to the Protocol (No 3) on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (the 'Statute`) and in particular to Article 19.2 thereof,
Having regard to the recommendation of the European Central Bank (the 'ECB`) (1),
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),
Having regard to the opinion of the Commission (3),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 106(6) of the Treaty establishing the European Community (hereinafter referred to as the 'Treaty`) and in Article 42 of the Statute and under the conditions set out in Article 43.1 of the Statute and paragraph 8 of the Protocol (No 11) on certain provisions relating to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
(1) Whereas Article 19.2, in conjunction with Article 43.1 of the Statute, paragraph 8 of Protocol No 11 and paragraph 2 of the Protocol (No 12) on certain provisions relating to Denmark, are not to confer any rights or impose any obligations on a non-participating Member State;
(2) Whereas Article 19.2 of the Statute requires the Council to define, inter alia, the basis for minimum reserves and the maximum permissible ratios between those reserves and their basis;
(3) Whereas Article 19.2 of the Statute also requires the Council to define the appropriate sanctions in cases of non-compliance with those requirements; whereas specific sanctions are set out herein; whereas this Regulation refers to Council Regulation (EC) No 2532/98 of 23 November 1998, concerning the powers of the European Central Bank to impose sanctions (4) for the principles and procedures relating to the imposition of sanctions and provides for a simplified procedure for the imposition of sanctions in the event of certain kinds of infringements; whereas, in the event of a conflict between the provisions of the Regulation (EC) No 2532/98 and the provisions of this Regulation enabling the ECB to impose sanctions, the provisions of this Regulation should prevail;
(4) Whereas Article 19.1 of the Statute provides that the Governing Council of the ECB may establish regulations concerning the calculation and determination of the required minimum reserves;
(5) Whereas, in order to be effective as an instrument for the performance of money market management and monetary control functions, the system for the imposition of minimum reserves needs to be structured so that the ECB has the ability and flexibility to impose reserve requirements within the context of, and dependent upon, changing economic and financial conditions among participating Member States; whereas in this respect the ECB must have the flexibility to react to new payment technologies such as the development of electronic money; whereas the ECB may impose minimum reserves on liabilities resulting from off-balance-sheet items, in particular those that are either individually or in combination with other on-balance-sheet or off-balance-sheet items, comparable with liabilities recorded on the balance sheet, in order to limit the possibilities of circumvention;
(6) Whereas the ECB, in establishing detailed regulations for the imposition of minimum reserves, including determining the actual reserve ratios, any remuneration of reserves, any exemptions from minimum reserves or any modifications to such requirements applicable to any specific group or groups of institutions, is bound to act in pursuance of the objectives of the European System of Central Banks (the 'ESCB`) as set out in Article 105(1) of the Treaty and as reflected in Article 2 of the Statute; whereas this implies, inter alia, the principle of not inducing significant undesirable delocation or disintermediation; whereas the imposition of such minimum reserves may constitute an element of the definition and implementation of the monetary policy of the Community, being one of the basic tasks of the ESCB as specified in the first indent of Article 105(2) of the Treaty and as reflected in the first indent of Article 3.1 of the Statute;
(7) Whereas the sanctions provided in the event of non-compliance with the obligations set out in this Regulation are without prejudice to the possibility of the ESCB establishing appropriate enforcement provisions in its relations with counterparties, including the partial or total exclusion of an institution from monetary policy operations in the case of serious infringements of the minimum reserve requirements;
(8) Whereas the ESCB and the ECB have been entrusted with the task of preparing the monetary policy instruments to allow for their full operation in the third stage of Economic and Monetary Union (hereinafter referred to as 'Stage Three`); whereas an essential element of preparation is the adoption, ahead of Stage Three, of ECB regulations requiring institutions to hold minimum reserves as from 1 January 1999; whereas it is desirable to inform market participants during 1998 of the detailed provisions which the ECB may deem necessary to adopt for the implementation of the minimum reserves system; whereas it is therefore necessary to provide the ECB from the date of entry into force of this Regulation with a regulatory power;
(9) Whereas the provisions of this Regulation can only be effectively applied in their entirety if participating Member States adopt the necessary measures with a view to ensuring that their authorities have the powers to assist and collaborate fully with the ECB in carrying out the collection and verification of information as required by this Regulation, in accordance with Article 5 of the Treaty,