(1)

Regulation (EC) No 2423/2001 of the European Central Bank of 22 November 2001 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (ECB/2001/13) (5) has been significantly amended on several occasions. Since further amendments to this Regulation are now required, it should be recast in the interests of clarity and transparency.

(2)

The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) requires, for the fulfilment of its tasks, the production of the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions (MFI) sector. The principal purpose thereof is to provide the European Central Bank (ECB) with a comprehensive statistical picture of monetary developments in the participating Member States, which are viewed as one economic territory. These statistics cover aggregate financial assets and liabilities, in terms of stocks and transactions, based on a complete and homogeneous MFI sector and reporting population, and are produced on a regular basis. Sufficiently detailed statistical data are also necessary to guarantee the continued analytical usefulness of the calculated monetary aggregates and counterparts covering this territory.

(3)

The ECB is required, in accordance with the EC Treaty and under the conditions laid down in the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (the ESCB Statute), to make regulations to the extent necessary to implement the ESCB's tasks as defined in the ESCB Statute and in some cases as laid down in the provisions adopted by the Council pursuant to Article 107(6) of the Treaty.

(4)

Article 5.1 of the ESCB Statute requires the ECB, assisted by the national central banks (NCBs), to collect the necessary statistical information either from the competent national authorities or directly from economic agents in order to undertake the ESCB's tasks. Article 5.2 of the ESCB Statute stipulates that the NCBs shall carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1.

(5)

Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires the ECB to specify the actual reporting population within the limits of the reference reporting population and entitles it to fully or partly exempt specific classes of reporting agents from its statistical reporting requirements. Article 6(4) provides that the ECB may adopt regulations specifying the conditions under which the right to verify or to carry out the compulsory collection of statistical information may be exercised.

(6)

Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires Member States to organise themselves in the field of statistics and to cooperate fully with the ESCB in order to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from Article 5 of the ESCB Statute.

(7)

It may be appropriate for NCBs to collect from the actual reporting population the statistical information necessary to fulfil the ECB's statistical requirements as part of a broader statistical reporting framework which the NCBs establish under their own responsibility in accordance with Community or national law or established practice and which also serves other statistical purposes, provided that the fulfilment of the ECB's statistical requirements is not jeopardised. This may also reduce the reporting burden. In order to foster transparency, it is appropriate, in these cases, to inform the reporting agents that data are collected to fulfil other statistical purposes. In specific cases, the ECB may rely on statistical information collected for such other purposes to fulfil its requirements.

(8)

The statistical requirements are most detailed where the counterparties are part of the money-holding sector. Detailed data are required on: (a) deposit liabilities by subsector and maturity classified further by currency to permit a closer analysis of the developments of the foreign currency components included in M3 and to facilitate investigations concerning the degree of substitutability between foreign currency and euro-denominated components of M3; (b) loans by subsector, maturity, purpose, interest rate reset and currency, as this information is considered essential for monetary analysis purposes; (c) positions vis-à-vis other MFIs in so far as this is necessary to allow for netting of inter-MFI balances or to calculate the reserve base; (d) positions vis-à-vis non-euro area residents (rest of the world) for ‘deposits over two years agreed maturity’, ‘deposits redeemable at notice over two years’ and ‘repos’ in order to calculate the reserve base subject to the positive reserve ratio; (e) positions vis-à-vis the rest of the world for total deposit liabilities in order to compile the external counterparts; (f) deposit liabilities and loans vis-à-vis the rest of the world below and above one year original maturity for balance of payments and financial accounts purposes.

(9)

Where this may reduce the reporting burden on credit institutions and support the development of enhanced statistics, NCBs are encouraged to promote security-by-security reporting arrangements for the collection of the statistical information on MFIs' securities portfolios required by this Regulation. In respect of money market funds (MMFs), NCBs may allow them to report in line with Regulation (EC) No 958/2007 of the European Central Bank of 27 July 2007 concerning statistics on the assets and liabilities of investment funds (ECB/2007/8) (6), so as to alleviate the burden on fund managers.

(10)

Financial transactions are computed by the ECB as the difference between stock positions at end-month reporting dates, from which the effect of changes that arise due to influences other than transactions is removed. The requirement addressed to the reporting agents does not cover the exchange rate changes, which are calculated by the ECB from currency-by-currency stock data supplied by the reporting agents, or the reclassification adjustments, which are collected by the NCBs themselves using various information sources that are already available.

(11)

Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 empowers the ECB to adopt regulations or decisions in order to exempt institutions from the minimum reserve requirements, to specify modalities to exclude or deduct liabilities owed to any other institution from the reserve base, and to establish differing reserve ratios for specific categories of liabilities. Under Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 2531/98, the ECB has the right to collect from institutions the information necessary for the application of minimum reserve requirements, and to verify the accuracy and quality of the information which institutions provide to demonstrate compliance with the minimum reserve requirements. In order to reduce the overall reporting burden, it is desirable for the statistical information regarding the monthly balance sheet to be used for the regular calculation of the reserve base of the credit institutions subject to the ECB's minimum reserve system, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 of the European Central Bank of 12 September 2003 on the application of minimum reserves (ECB/2003/9) (7).

(12)

The determination of specific procedures to be applied in the case of mergers involving credit institutions is necessary in order to clarify the obligations of these institutions in respect of reserve requirements.

(13)

The ECB requires information on the securitisation activities of MFIs in order to interpret credit and loan developments in the euro area. Such information also complements data reported under Regulation (EC) No 24/2009 of the European Central Bank of 19 December 2008 concerning statistics on the assets and liabilities of financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions (ECB/2008/30) (8).

(14)

While it is recognised that regulations adopted by the ECB do not confer any rights or impose any obligations on non-participating Member States, Article 5 of the ESCB Statute applies to both participating and non-participating Member States. Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 recalls that Article 5 of the ESCB Statute, together with Article 10 of the Treaty, implies an obligation on the non-participating Member States to design and implement at national level all the measures that they consider appropriate in order to carry out the collection of the statistical information needed to fulfil the ECB's statistical reporting requirements and to ensure timely preparations in the field of statistics in order for them to become participating Member States,

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‘monetary financial institution’ (MFI) means a resident credit institution as defined in Community law, or another resident financial institution whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from entities other than MFIs and, for its own account (at least in economic terms), to grant credits and/or make investments in securities. The MFI sector comprises (9): (a) central banks; (b) credit institutions as defined in Article 4(1) of Directive 2006/48/EC (an undertaking whose business is to receive deposits or other repayable funds from the public (10) and to grant credits for its own account or an electronic money institution within the meaning of Directive 2000/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on the taking up, pursuit of and prudential supervision of the business of electronic money institutions (11)); and (c) other MFIs, i.e. other resident financial institutions which fulfil the MFI definition, irrespective of the nature of their business. The degree of substitutability between the instruments issued by the latter and the deposits placed with credit institutions determines their classification, provided that they meet the MFI definition in other respects. In the case of collective investment undertakings, MMFs fulfil the agreed conditions for liquidity and are therefore included in the MFI sector (see principles on identification of MFIs in Annex I, Part 1),

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‘participating Member State’ means a participating Member State as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98,

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‘non-participating Member State’ means a Member State which has not adopted the euro,

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‘reporting agent’ means a reporting agent as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98,

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‘resident’ means resident as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98,

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‘financial vehicle corporation’ (FVC) means a financial vehicle corporation as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 24/2009 (ECB/2008/30),

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‘securitisation’ means a transaction which is either: (a) a traditional securitisation as defined in Article 4 of Directive 2006/48/EC; and/or (b) a securitisation as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 24/2009 (ECB/2008/30), which involves the disposal of the loans being securitised to an FVC,

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‘electronic money institution’ and ‘electronic money’ mean electronic money institution and electronic money as defined in Article 1(3) of Directive 2000/46/EC,

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‘write-down’ means the direct reduction of the carrying amount of a loan on the balance sheet due to its impairment,

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‘servicer’ means an MFI which manages the loans underlying a securitisation on a day-to-day basis in terms of the collection of principal and interest from the obligors, which is then forwarded to investors in the securitisation scheme,

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‘loan disposal’ means the economic transfer of a loan or pool of loans by the reporting agent to a non-MFI transferee, achieved either by transfer of ownership or by sub-participation,

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‘loan acquisition’ means the economic transfer of a loan or pool of loans from a non-MFI transferor to the reporting agent, achieved either by transfer of ownership or by sub-participation.

1.

The net flow of loan securitisations and other loan transfers carried out during the reporting period;

2.

The end-of-quarter amount outstanding in respect of all loans for which the MFI acts as servicer in a securitisation;

3.

When applying the International Accounting Standard 39 (IAS 39) or similar national accounting rules, the end-of-period amount outstanding in respect of loans disposed of by means of a securitisation that has not been derecognised from the balance sheet.