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Document 02021R0378-20221221
Regulation (EU) 2021/378 of the European Central Bank of 22 January 2021 on the application of minimum reserve requirements (recast) (ECB/2021/1)
Consolidated text: Regulation (EU) 2021/378 of the European Central Bank of 22 January 2021 on the application of minimum reserve requirements (recast) (ECB/2021/1)
Regulation (EU) 2021/378 of the European Central Bank of 22 January 2021 on the application of minimum reserve requirements (recast) (ECB/2021/1)
02021R0378 — EN — 21.12.2022 — 001.001
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REGULATION (EU) 2021/378 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 22 January 2021 on the application of minimum reserve requirements (recast) (ECB/2021/1) (OJ L 073 3.3.2021, p. 1) |
Amended by:
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REGULATION (EU) 2022/2419 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 6 December 2022 |
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12.12.2022 |
REGULATION (EU) 2021/378 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
of 22 January 2021
on the application of minimum reserve requirements (recast) (ECB/2021/1)
Article 1
Subject matter and scope
This Regulation establishes the minimum reserve requirements for the following institutions:
credit institutions which are either:
authorised in accordance with Article 8 of Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 1 ); or
exempt from such authorisation pursuant to Article 2(5) of Directive 2013/36/EU;
branches of credit institutions, including branches established in Member States whose currency is the euro (euro area Member State) of credit institutions with neither their registered office nor their head office located in a euro area Member State; but excluding branches established outside of a euro area Member State of credit institutions which are established in a euro area Member State.
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
‘minimum reserves’ means the amount of funds that an institution is required to hold as reserves in its reserve accounts with the relevant national central bank;
‘minimum reserve requirements’ means all the requirements that institutions are required to comply with pursuant to this Regulation in relation to minimum reserves as regards the calculation, notification, acknowledgement, and maintenance of minimum reserves, and reporting and verification;
‘euro area Member State’ means a Member State whose currency is the euro;
‘credit institution’ means ‘credit institution’ as defined in Article 4(1)(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
‘branch’ means ‘branch’ as defined in Article 4(1)(17) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;
‘relevant NCB’ means the national central bank (NCB) of the euro area Member State in which the institution is resident;
‘reserve accounts’ means the accounts in which an institution holds its reserves with the relevant NCB;
‘reserve base’ means the sum of the eligible liabilities used for calculating the minimum reserves of an institution;
‘reserve ratio’ means the percentage applied to items of the reserve base for calculating an institution’s minimum reserves;
‘maintenance period’ means the period over which compliance with minimum reserve requirements is assessed;
‘end-of-day balance’ means the reserve holdings at the time when the finalisation of payment activities has taken place and entries relating to access to the standing facilities of the Eurosystem have been made;
‘NCB business day’ means any day on which a particular NCB is open for the purpose of conducting Eurosystem monetary policy operations;
‘TARGET2 business day’ means any day on which TARGET2 is open for the settlement of payment orders as defined in Guideline ECB/2012/27 of the European Central Bank ( 2 );
‘resident’ means any natural or legal person residing in any of the euro area Member States within the meaning of Article 1(4) of Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 ( 3 );
‘merger’ means an operation whereby one or more credit institutions (the acquired institutions), on being dissolved without going into liquidation, transfer all their assets and liabilities to another credit institution (the acquiring institution), which may be a newly established credit institution;
‘division’ means an operation whereby one credit institution (the institution being divided), on being dissolved without going into liquidation, transfers all its assets and liabilities to more than one institution (the recipient institutions), which may be newly established credit institutions.
Article 3
Reserve holdings
Institutions referred to in Article 1 shall hold minimum reserves, calculated in accordance with Article 6, as follows:
the average end-of-day balance on one or more reserve accounts over the maintenance period shall be equal to or shall exceed the amount calculated for that period in accordance with Article 6;
minimum reserves shall be held on reserve accounts, denominated in euro, with the relevant NCBs in each euro area Member State in which they are established;
settlement accounts with the NCBs may be used as reserve accounts for the purposes of this Regulation;
funds subject to any legal, contractual, regulatory or other restriction that would prevent the institution from liquidating, transferring, assigning or disposing of such funds during the relevant maintenance period shall be excluded from the reserve holdings.
For the purposes of point (d), institutions shall notify the relevant NCB of any restrictions referred to therein without undue delay.
Where an institution has several branches in the same euro area Member State, the following shall apply:
the registered office or head office, if located in that Member State, shall fulfil the minimum reserve requirements set out in this Article for those branches in that Member State;
that institution shall designate one of its branches in the same Member State for the purposes of fulfilling the minimum reserve requirements in this Article where it has neither a registered office nor a head office in that Member State;
the relevant NCB shall use all end-of-day balances in the reserve accounts of the branches of that institution in the same Member State to assess whether paragraph 1(a) of this Article is fulfilled.
The European Central Bank (ECB) shall publish the following lists of institutions on its website:
institutions subject to minimum reserve requirements pursuant to this Regulation;
institutions exempted from minimum reserve requirements pursuant to Article 4, excluding those institutions referred to in points (a) to (c) of Article 4(2).
Article 4
Exemptions from minimum reserve requirements
Institutions shall be exempt from the minimum reserve requirements in Article 3 where either of the following apply:
an authorisation referred to in Article 1(a)(i) is withdrawn or renounced; or
an institution is subject to winding-up proceedings pursuant to Directive 2001/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 4 ).
The ECB may grant exemptions from the minimum reserve requirements in Article 3, upon request by the relevant NCB, where any of the following apply:
an institution is subject to a reorganisation measure pursuant to Directive 2001/24/EC;
an institution is subject to a freezing order imposed by the Union or by a Member State, or is subject to measures imposed by the Union pursuant to Article 75 of the Treaty, which restricts the institution’s ability to use its funds;
that institution’s access to the Eurosystem’s open market operations or standing facilities has been suspended or excluded by the ECB and NCBs (Eurosystem) pursuant to Guideline (EU) 2015/510 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/60) ( 5 );
it is not appropriate to require minimum reserves from that institution.
For the purposes of point (c) of the first subparagraph, where an institution’s access to the Eurosystem’s open market operations or standing facilities is restored by the Governing Council of the ECB pursuant to Article 158 of Guideline (EU) 2015/510 (ECB/2014/60), the exemption shall no longer apply from the start of the next maintenance period.
For the purposes of granting exemptions in accordance with paragraph 2(d), the relevant NCBs and the ECB shall take all of the following into account:
whether that institution is authorised to pursue special-purpose functions only;
whether that institution is prohibited from exercising active banking functions in competition with other credit institutions;
whether that institution is under a legal obligation to have all its deposits earmarked for purposes relating to regional and/or international development assistance.
For the purposes of point (a), an institution is authorised to pursue special-purpose functions only where it exercises specific public administration tasks or the institution is forbidden by law or statute to undertake the business of credit institutions.
Article 5
Reserve base
Institutions shall calculate their reserve base using the statistical information on the following liabilities reported pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2021/379 (ECB/2021/2):
deposits;
debt securities issued.
Where an institution holds liabilities owed to a branch of the same entity located outside the euro area, or to the head office or registered office of the same entity which is located outside the euro area, those liabilities shall be included in the reserve base.
The following liabilities shall be excluded from the reserve base calculated pursuant to paragraph 1:
liabilities owed to any other institution where that institution:
is subject to minimum reserve requirements pursuant to this Regulation; and
is not exempt or has not been granted an exemption from minimum reserve requirements pursuant to Article 4;
liabilities owed to the ECB or to an NCB of a euro area Member State.
Where liabilities are excluded from the reserve base in accordance with paragraph 2, the institution shall:
inform the relevant NCB of the excluded amount without undue delay;
provide evidence of those liabilities;
deduct the amount of those liabilities from the reserve base after providing evidence of the amount to the relevant NCB in accordance with point (b).
For the purposes of point (b), where an institution is unable to provide evidence to the relevant NCB of the amount of liabilities within the category of ‘debt securities issued’, that institution shall apply the standard deduction published on the ECB’s website to the outstanding amount of the debt securities which it has issued and which have an original maturity of up to and including two years.
Article 6
Calculation of minimum reserves
Minimum reserves held by institutions pursuant to Article 3 shall be calculated using the following reserve ratios for each of the liabilities of the reserve base referred to in Article 5:
a reserve ratio of 0 % shall apply to the following categories referred to in Part 2 of Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2021/379 (ECB/2021/2):
deposits which fulfil one of the following conditions:
debt securities issued with an original maturity over two years;
a reserve ratio of 1 % on all other liabilities included in the reserve base.
NCBs shall use the minimum reserves calculated in accordance with Article 6 for the following:
to remunerate holdings of minimum reserves;
to assess whether Article 3(1)(a) is fulfilled.
Article 7
Notification of minimum reserves
Where the relevant NCB calculates an institution’s minimum reserves pursuant to paragraph 1, all of the following shall apply:
the relevant NCB shall notify that institution of its minimum reserves at the latest three NCB business days before the start of the maintenance period;
that institution shall acknowledge its minimum reserves at the latest on the NCB business day preceding the start of the maintenance period;
where the institution does not reply to the notification referred to in point (a) by the end of the NCB business day preceding the start of the maintenance period, the acknowledgement referred to in point (b) shall be deemed to have taken place and the minimum reserves notified shall apply to that institution for that maintenance period.
Where an institution calculates its minimum reserves pursuant to paragraph 1, all of the following shall apply:
that institution shall notify the relevant NCB of its minimum reserves at the latest three NCB business days before the start of the maintenance period;
the relevant NCB shall acknowledge that institution’s minimum reserves at the latest on the NCB business day preceding the start of the maintenance period;
if the relevant NCB does not reply to the notification referred to in point (a) by the end of the NCB business day preceding the start of the maintenance period, the acknowledgement referred to in point (b) shall be deemed to have taken place and the minimum reserves notified shall apply to that institution for that maintenance period.
Article 8
Maintenance period
Article 9
Remuneration
The relevant NCB shall remunerate holdings of minimum reserves in the reserve accounts at the average, taken over the maintenance period, of the Eurosystem’s deposit facility rate (weighted according to the number of calendar days) according to the following formula (whereby the result is rounded to the nearest cent):
Where:
Rt |
= |
remuneration to be paid on holdings of minimum reserves for the maintenance period t; |
Ht |
= |
average daily holdings of minimum reserves for the maintenance period t; |
nt |
= |
number of calendar days in the maintenance period t; |
rt |
= |
rate of remuneration on holdings of minimum reserves for the maintenance period t; standard rounding of the rate of remuneration to two decimals shall be applied; |
i |
= |
ith calendar day of the maintenance period t; |
DFRi |
= |
the deposit facility rate on each day i of the maintenance period. |
Article 10
Indirect holding of minimum reserves through an intermediary
An institution may apply to the relevant NCB for permission to hold all its minimum reserves indirectly through an intermediary institution where that intermediary institution:
is resident in the same Member State;
is subject to minimum reserve requirements;
normally carries out certain administrative tasks (e.g. treasury management) for that institution, beyond the holding of minimum reserves.
For the purposes of paragraph 1, where an institution applies for permission to hold all its minimum reserves indirectly through an intermediary institution, it shall conclude an agreement with that intermediary institution to that effect. That agreement shall specify at least the following:
whether the applicant wishes to access Eurosystem standing facilities and open market operations;
a notice period of at least 12 months, without prejudice to the provisions in Article 10(7)(b).
Where an institution gives notice as referred to in point (b), it shall inform the relevant NCB thereof without undue delay.
Where a parent applies for permission to hold the minimum reserves of the group as an intermediary pursuant to paragraph 3, that parent shall conclude an agreement with each institution in that group to act as an intermediary. Those agreements shall specify at least the following:
whether the parent or subsidiaries will access Eurosystem standing facilities and open market operations;
a notice period of at least 12 months.
A permission granted to an institution to hold minimum reserves through an intermediary pursuant to Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 (ECB/2003/9) shall be deemed to be granted in accordance with this paragraph for the purposes of this Regulation.
The ECB or the relevant NCB may, at any time, withdraw the permission granted pursuant to paragraph 5 where any of the following apply:
either party to the agreement referred to in paragraph 2 or 4 fails to fulfil the requirements of this Regulation;
either party to the agreement referred to in paragraph 2 or 4 requests such withdrawal of permission pursuant to this Article;
the conditions for the indirect holding of minimum reserves specified in paragraph 1 are no longer fulfilled;
prudential reasons relating to the intermediary institution exist.
The relevant NCB or the ECB shall consider the following when determining whether to withdraw permission pursuant to paragraph 7:
whether the parties have agreed to terminate the agreement by mutual consent;
whether the institution holding its minimum reserves indirectly through an intermediary is able to fulfil its own reserve requirements.
Where the relevant NCB or the ECB withdraws permission pursuant to paragraph 7, the following shall apply:
the withdrawal of the permission shall take effect at the end of a maintenance period except where the permission is withdrawn pursuant to paragraph 7(d);
where the permission is withdrawn pursuant to paragraph 7(d), the withdrawal shall have immediate effect and the minimum notification period provided for in point (c) of this paragraph shall not apply;
the relevant NCB or the ECB shall notify both parties to the agreement referred to in paragraph 2 or 4 of the withdrawal at least five working days before the end of the final maintenance period for which the permission applies.
Article 11
Aggregated reporting of the reserve base
Article 12
Mergers and divisions
Where a merger takes effect during a maintenance period, all of the following shall apply:
the acquiring institution shall fulfil the requirements of this Regulation for the acquired institution;
the acquiring institution’s minimum reserves shall be reduced by each lump sum allowance applicable pursuant to Article 6(2);
NCBs shall assess whether institutions fulfil the requirements of Article 3(1)(a) by taking into account the end-of day holdings in the reserve accounts of both the acquiring and acquired institutions.
The following shall apply during the maintenance period immediately following the maintenance period referred to in paragraph 1:
the minimum reserves of the acquiring institution shall be reduced in accordance with Article 6(2) by only one lump sum; and
the acquiring institution’s minimum reserves shall be calculated for the purposes of Article 6 using a reserve base which aggregates the reserve bases of the acquired institutions and of the acquiring institution.
For the purposes of point (b), the calculation shall use the reserve bases of each institution for the relevant maintenance period as if the merger had not occurred, and in accordance with the rules set out in Annex III, Part 2 of Regulation (EU) 2021/379 (ECB/2021/2).
The first subparagraph shall also apply for subsequent maintenance periods where the conditions of paragraph 4 of Part 2 of Annex III to Regulation (EU) 2021/379 (ECB/2021/2) are met.
Where a division takes effect during a maintenance period, the following shall apply:
the recipient institutions which are credit institutions shall fulfil the requirements of this Regulation for the institution being divided;
each of the recipient credit institutions shall fulfil the requirements of this Regulation for that part of the reserve base of the institution being divided that is allocated to it;
reserves held by the institution being divided shall be allocated proportionally between the recipient institutions;
the lump sum allowance referred to in Article 6(2) shall be deducted from the minimum reserves of each recipient institution.
The following shall apply during the maintenance period immediately following the maintenance period in which the division takes effect and until the recipient institutions report their respective reserve bases in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/379 (ECB/2021/2):
each recipient institution shall fulfil the requirements of this Regulation for that part of the reserve base of the institution being divided that is allocated to it, if any; and
the lump sum allowance referred to in Article 6(2) shall be deducted from the minimum reserves of each recipient institution.
Article 13
Delegation of powers in the event of adoption of the euro
Where a Member State adopts the euro in accordance with the Treaty, the Governing Council hereby delegates power to the Executive Board to determine, after taking into consideration the views of the Market Operations Committee of the ESCB, the following:
the dates of a transitional maintenance period for the application of minimum reserve requirements pursuant to Article 3 to institutions established in that Member State, with the start date being the date of the adoption of the euro in that Member State;
the manner of calculation of the reserve base referred to in Article 5 during the transitional maintenance period referred to in point (a);
the deadline for the calculation and verification of the minimum reserves by the institutions established in that Member State or by the relevant NCB for the transitional maintenance period.
The Executive Board shall adopt and publish a decision pursuant to the first subparagraph at least two months prior to the date of the adoption of the euro in the relevant Member State and shall notify the Governing Council thereof.
This first subparagraph shall apply where institutions in the Member State adopting the euro do not appear on the list of institutions referred to in Article 3(3)(a) at the time the minimum reserves are calculated. In this event, decisions adopted by the Executive Board allowing for the deduction pursuant to this paragraph may further specify the manner of in which the deduction of such liabilities shall be calculated.
.
Article 14
Verification
Article 15
Repeal
Article 16
Final provisions
This Regulation shall enter into force on the fifth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 26 June 2021. However, Article 3 shall apply from 28 July 2021, on the first day of the fifth maintenance period in 2021.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in the Member States in accordance with the Treaties.
ANNEX I
Repealed Regulation with list of the successive amendments thereto
Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2003/9) (OJ L 250, 2.10.2003, p. 10).
Regulation (EC) No 1052/2008 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2008/10) (OJ L 282, 25.10.2008, p. 14).
Regulation (EU) No 1358/2011 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2011/26) (OJ L 338, 21.12.2011, p. 51).
Regulation (EU) No 1376/2014 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/52) (OJ L 366, 20.12.2014, p. 79).
Regulation (EU) 2016/1705 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2016/26) (OJ L 257, 23.9.2016, p. 10).
ANNEX II
Correlation table
Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 |
This Regulation |
Article 1 |
Article 2 |
Article 2(1) |
Article 1 |
Article 2(2), first subparagraph |
Article 4(1) |
Article 2(2), second subparagraph |
Article 4(2), 4(3) |
Article 2(3) |
Article 3(3) |
— |
Article (3)(1)(d) and Article 3(4) |
Article 3(1) |
Article 5(1) |
Article 3(2) |
Article 5(2) |
Article 3(2a), first subparagraph |
Article 5(3) |
Article 3(2a), second subparagraph |
Article 5(4) |
— |
Article 5(5) |
Article 3(3) |
Article 5(6) |
Article 3(4) |
Article 5(7) |
Article 4(1) |
Article 6(1)(a) |
Article 4(2) |
Article 6(1)(b) |
Article 5(1) |
Article 6(1), introductory sentence and Article 6(3) |
Article 5(2) |
Article 6(2) |
Article 5(3) |
Article 7(1) to (5) |
Article 5(4) |
Article 7(6) |
Article 5(5) |
Article 7(7) |
Article 6(1), first and second sentences |
Article 3(1)(b) |
Article 6(1), third sentence |
Article 3(1)(c) |
Article 6(2) |
Article 3(1)(a) |
Article 6(3) |
Article 3(2) |
Article 7 |
Article 8 |
Article 8 |
Article 9 |
Article 9 |
Article 14(1) |
Article 10(1) and (2) |
Article 10(1) and (2), 10(5) |
Article 10(3) |
Article 10(6) and (10) |
Article 10(4) |
Article 10(7) and Article 10(9)(a) and (c) |
Article 10(5) |
Article 10(9)(b) |
— |
Article 10(4) to (5) and (8) |
Article 10(6) |
Recital 5, Article 14(2) |
Article 11 |
Article 11 |
Article 12 |
— |
Article 13 |
Article 12 |
Article 13a |
Article 13 |
Article 14 |
Article 15 |
— |
|
Article 15 |
Article 16 |
— |
Annexes I and II |
( 1 ) Directive 2013/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on access to the activity of credit institutions and the prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms, amending Directive 2002/87/EC and repealing Directives 2006/48/EC and 2006/49/EC (OJ L 176, 27.6.2013, p. 338).
( 2 ) Guideline ECB/2012/27 of the European Central Bank of 5 December 2012 on a Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross settlement Express Transfer system (TARGET2) (OJ L 30, 30.1.2013, p. 1).
( 3 ) 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).
( 4 ) Directive 2001/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 April 2001 on the reorganisation and winding up of credit institutions (OJ L 125, 5.5.2001, p. 15).
( 5 ) Guideline (EU) 2015/510 of the European Central Bank of 19 December 2014 on the implementation of the Eurosystem monetary policy framework (ECB/2014/60) (OJ L 91, 2.4.2015, p. 3).
( 6 ) Guideline (EU) 2019/671 of the European Central Bank of 9 April 2019 on domestic asset and liability management operations by the national central banks (ECB/2019/7) (OJ L 113, 29.4.2019, p. 11).