common accord would have to be reached on the central parity against the euro. with a view to further enhancing the ecb ’ s transparency policy, the governing council has today decided to publish all non - confidential legal instruments governing the relationship between the ecb and the euro area national central banks in the official journal of the european communities. the release of these legal instruments in all 11 official community languages will give interested members of the public an opportunity to gain first - hand knowledge about the internal operation of the eurosystem. the members of the governing council regard the transparency of the decision - making process as an appropriate means by which to strengthen the democratic nature of the institution and to increase the public ’ s confidence in its administration. this decision is in line with the general policy towards increased transparency in the decision - making process currently being pursued at the community level.

be deferred until it is earned. one major industry affected by these concepts is the financial services industry. while a small amount of revenue is received for transactions, most is generated by sales that lead to future revenue streams, such as that when a checking account is opened. in the context of the financial services industry, the accounting practice used today is sometimes called the “ mixed attribute ” approach. this means that some assets and liabilities continue to be recorded on a historical cost basis, while others are reported at fair value or at lower - of - cost - or - market ( locom ). in some instances in the mixed attribute approach, changes in fair value are reported in earnings, while in other cases they are excluded from earnings but affect the equity portion of the balance sheet. for example, assets that are included in the trading account are carried at fair value and changes in fair value are reported in earnings during the period. however, securities that are intended to be held until maturity are reported at amortized cost with no change in fair value recognized in earnings unless permanent impairment has occurred. loans that are held - for - sale are separately reported on the balance sheet and recorded at locom, while loans that a bank intends to hold for the long - term are reported at amortized cost. the mixed attribute accounting model is effective for financial services because it reflects differences in the earnings process. thus, when profits are generated through the trading account, earnings are driven by the activity of buying and selling securities. traders make decisions about what to buy, and the market timing of the purchases and sales rest on comparisons of relative returns on the alternative securities. the success of a trading account as a business reflects management's ability to identify unusual valuations in the market and quickly act upon them. in this case, a fair value framework is appropriate for accounting since it is similar to the information and decision process that management is using. an example of a different business model is a floating rate loan that is made and held on the balance sheet with the intent to service the loan until it is paid off. here, the floating rate means that changes in market interest rates will not affect the fair value of the loan. rather, credit quality and the cost to service the loan are the two major drivers of profitability. management's ability to underwrite the credit initially, manage changes in credit risk over the life of the loan, and limit losses of principal and interest and collection costs should a default occur, are key