Regulation (EU) 2021/379 of the European Central Bank of 22 January 2021 on the balance sheet items of credit institutions and of the monetary financial institutions sector (recast) (ECB/2021/2)

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,

Having regard to the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, and in particular Article 5 thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (1), and in particular Articles 5(1) and 6(4) thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank (2), and in particular Article 6(4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EU) No 1071/2013 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2013/33) (3) has been amended and requires further substantial amendments, in particular in the light of recent amendments to Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2003/9 (4) Regulation (EU) 2017/1131 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) and Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). It should therefore be recast in the interests of clarity.

(2) The European Commission was consulted on the amendments to the statistical requirements set out in Regulation (EU) No 1071/2013 (ECB/2013/33) in accordance with Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98.

(3) Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires the European Central Bank (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.

(4) 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 European System of Central Banks (ESCB) in order to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising from Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB.

(5) The ESCB requires, for the fulfilment of its tasks, statistical information on the financial assets and liabilities, in terms of outstanding amounts and transactions, on the monetary financial institution (MFI) sector and on credit institutions as defined in Union law. In order to provide the ECB with a comprehensive statistical picture of monetary developments in the Member States whose currency is the euro (hereinafter the ‘euro area Member States’), which are viewed as one economic territory, it is necessary to produce a consolidated balance sheet of the MFI sector based on a complete and homogeneous reporting population. Sufficiently detailed statistical information is also necessary to guarantee the continued analytical usefulness of the euro area monetary aggregates and counterparts.

(6) Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 amends, inter alia, the definition of ‘credit institutions’ in Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council (7) to include systemic investment firms. Consequently, it is necessary to adapt the reference in the definition of ‘monetary financial institution’ in Regulation (EU) No 1071/2013 (ECB/2013/33) to the relevant amended provision in Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 in order to maintain consistency in the common standards, definitions and classifications for the statistical classification of deposit-taking corporations, and the homogeneity of the MFI sector. Nevertheless, it is also necessary to ensure the continued availability of the statistical information on all credit institutions as defined in Article 4(1)(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013, as amended, including for the calculation of the reserve bases for those credit institutions in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/378 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2021/1) (8). Non-MFI credit institutions are therefore included within the scope of the recast.

(7) In order to reduce the overall reporting burden, it is desirable for the statistical information regarding the monthly balance sheet of credit institutions 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 (EU) 2021/378 (ECB/2021/1). Furthermore, the reporting requirements relating to the reserve base should be adapted to accommodate the reporting of deposits placed with credit institutions subject to minimum reserve requirements without reference to a specific statistical classification.

(8) In order to facilitate the fulfilment of statistical requirements by groups of related reporting agents, it is appropriate that MFIs may be permitted to report on behalf of other reporting agents that are also MFIs resident in the same Member State. It is nevertheless necessary that the statistical information reported for such groups is sufficient, where relevant, for the calculation of the reserve base of credit institutions in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/378 (ECB/2021/1). Therefore, statistical information necessary for the calculation of the reserve base of each member of such groups should be reported, except where the group has been permitted to report reserves on an aggregated basis for the group as a whole pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2021/378 (ECB/2021/1).

(9) It may be appropriate for national central banks (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 Union 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.

(10) The ECB needs to monitor the transmission of monetary policy and, in particular, the impact of changes in the interest rates applied to the main refinancing operations and targeted longer-term refinancing operations and of the purchases conducted under the asset purchase programmes on the lending conditions for households and non-financial corporations. In order for the ECB to monitor the conditions of credit in the real economy and its role as counterpart to the monetary aggregates in a more effective and timely manner, it is necessary to collect further statistical information on securitisations and other transfers by MFIs on a monthly basis, in particular relating to loans to households broken down by purpose and loans to non-financial corporations broken down by maturity.

(11) The ECB requires statistical information on notional cash pooling so that the impact of deposits and loans in notional cash pools can be distinguished from that of other deposits and loans in the analysis of monetary and credit developments.

(12) In order to facilitate the analysis of credit developments, certain definitions and reporting practices should be aligned with those of other regulatory reporting requirements established by the ECB.

(13) It is also necessary to align the definition of money market funds (MMFs) for statistical purposes with supervisory rules in order to increase market transparency and facilitate reporting, in so far as the collective investment undertakings authorised under Regulation (EU) 2017/1131 issue financial instruments that are considered close substitutes for deposits.

(14) In order to enhance analysis of the balance sheet of the MFI sector for the euro area as a whole, it is necessary to promote the harmonisation of the reporting requirements for certain items with complementing statistical information provided by NCBs under Guideline ECB/2014/15 of the European Central Bank (9).

(15) In order for the ECB to effectively monitor interbank activity, it is necessary to collect information on assets and liabilities with breakdowns by MFI counterparties and to improve consistency between the counterparty information collected on a monthly and quarterly basis.

(16) Furthermore, to clarify the relationship between MFIs and other parts of the financial sector, including financial intermediaries other than monetary financial institutions, and to support the compilation of monetary union financial accounts, it is necessary to collect statistical information on deposits and equities with breakdowns of counterparties by subsectors.

(17) Information on MFIs’ holdings of debt securities issued by the governments of each Member State must be collected on a timely basis in order to accurately monitor exposures to these securities. Information on Member States should be complemented by information on assets and liabilities from Union authorities, including the Single Resolution Board (SRB) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). In addition, updates to reporting requirements are necessary as a result of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union.

(18) It is also necessary to collect information related to total real estate holdings to monitor the extent of ownership of such assets by MFIs, and better understand developments in their overall non-financial assets.

(19) The latest monthly and quarterly requirements should be introduced with respect to reference periods falling within a calendar quarter in order to facilitate their implementation by reporting agents. Consequently, the first reporting of the monthly requirements is for the reference period January 2022, and the first reporting of the quarterly requirements refers to the first quarter of 2022. In order to ensure the continued availability of the necessary data, the quarterly data requirements should be maintained with respect to the reference period of the fourth quarter of 2021. The reporting requirements established pursuant to this Regulation should therefore apply after the respective reference period for the monthly information to be reported, namely 1 February 2022.

(20) It is necessary to set up a procedure to carry out technical amendments to the Annexes to this Regulation in an effective manner, provided that such amendments neither change the underlying conceptual framework nor increase the reporting burden. Account should be taken of the views of the Statistics Committee of the ESCB when following this procedure. NCBs should propose such technical amendments to the Annexes to this Regulation through the Statistics Committee.

(21) However, in order to ensure legal certainty, it is necessary that the provisions of this Regulation which are a direct consequence of the amendment to the definition of ‘credit institutions’ pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 apply at the same time as that amendment on 26 June 2021.

(22) For reasons of consistency and legal certainty, it is also necessary that the provisions of this Regulation which refer to Regulation (EU) 2021/378 (ECB/2021/1) apply from the same date as the provisions of that Regulation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

This Regulation establishes the reporting requirements for the following reporting agents which are resident in the territory of the euro area Member States with regard to statistical information on balance sheet items:

(a) monetary financial institutions (MFIs) other than credit institutions;

(c) branches of credit institutions, including branches established in a 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:

(2) ‘credit institution’ means ‘credit institution’ as defined in Article 4(1)(1) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;

(4) ‘non-MFI credit institution’ means a credit institution the business of which does not consist of the activities referred to in Article 4(1)(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;

(5) ‘money market funds’ or ‘MMFs’ means collective investment undertakings that have been authorised pursuant to Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2017/1131 and that issue shares or units which are close substitutes for deposits as referred to in Part 1 of Annex I to this Regulation;

(6) ‘reporting agents’ means ‘reporting agents’ as defined in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98;

(7) ‘resident’ means ‘resident’ as defined in Article 1(4) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98;

(8) ‘relevant NCB’ means the national central bank of the euro area Member State in which the reporting agent is resident;

(9) ‘financial vehicle corporation’ or ‘FVC’ means ‘financial vehicle corporation’ as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1075/2013 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2013/40) (12);

(10) ‘securitisation’ means a transaction that is either a traditional securitisation as defined in Article 2(9) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 of the European Parliament and of the Council (13), or a securitisation as defined in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1075/2013 (ECB/2013/40) in which there is a disposal of the loans being securitised to an FVC;

(11) ‘electronic money institution’ means ‘electronic money institution’ as defined in Article 2(1) of Directive 2009/110/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (14);

(12) ‘electronic money’ means ‘electronic money’ as defined in Article 2(2) of Directive 2009/110/EC;

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

(14) ‘write-off’ means a write-down of the full carrying amount of a loan leading to its removal from the balance sheet;

(15) ‘servicer’ means an MFI which manages loans underlying a securitisation or loans that have otherwise been transferred in terms of the collection of principal and interest from the obligors;

(16) ‘intra-group positions’ mean loans to or deposits from euro area deposit-taking corporations that belong to the same group, consisting of a parent and all its directly or indirectly controlled euro area resident group-members;

(17) ‘tail institution’ means an MFI that has been granted a derogation pursuant to Article 9(1) and (2), or a non-MFI credit institution that has been granted a derogation pursuant to Article 9(5)(a);

(18) ‘loan loss provisions’ means allowances set aside by the reporting agent for loan losses in accordance with applicable accounting practices;

(21) ‘branch’ means ‘branch’ as defined in Article 4(1)(17) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013;

(22) ‘derecognition’ means the removal of a loan or part thereof from the outstanding amounts reported in accordance with Parts 2 and 3 of Annex I;

(23) ‘loan transfer’ means an acquisition or disposal by the reporting agent of a loan or pool of loans, achieved either by transfer of ownership or by sub-participation;

(24) ‘merger’ means an operation whereby one or more institutions (the acquired institutions), on being dissolved without going into liquidation, transfer all their assets and liabilities to another institution (the acquiring institution), which may be a newly established institution.

Article 3

Actual reporting population

Article 4

List of MFIs for statistical purposes

Reporting agents shall report the required statistical information in accordance with this Regulation where their exclusion from the list is manifestly erroneous.

Article 5

Statistical reporting requirements

(a) the end-month outstanding amounts specified in Table 1 in Part 2 of Annex I;

(b) the monthly revaluation adjustments specified as minimum requirements in Table 1A in Part 4 of Annex I, and the other monthly revaluation adjustments in that table where required by the relevant NCB;

(c) the monthly net loan transfers specified in Table 5a in Part 5 of Annex I;

(d) the end-month outstanding amounts and monthly revaluation adjustments of transferred loans specified in Table 5b in Part 5 of Annex I;

(e) the end-quarter outstanding amounts specified in Tables 2, 3 and 4 in Part 3 of Annex I;

(f) the quarterly revaluation adjustments specified as minimum requirements in Table 2A in Part 4 of Annex I, and the other quarterly revaluation adjustments in that table where required by the relevant NCB.

NCBs may collect the quarterly statistical information specified in points (e) and (f) of the first subparagraph on a monthly basis where such collection facilitates the data production process.

(c) the end-quarter outstanding amounts specified in Table 2 in Part 3 of Annex I, with the exception of the items which refer to breakdowns of loans by remaining maturities;