Regulation (EU) 2024/1988 of the European Central Bank of 27 June 2024 concerning statistics on investment funds and repealing Decision (EU) 2015/32 (ECB/2014/62) (ECB/2024/17) (recast)

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,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EU) No 1073/2013 of the European Central Bank of 18 October 2013 concerning statistics on the assets and liabilities of investment funds (ECB/2013/38) (2) needs to be substantially amended, in particular in light of the need to collect additional and more frequent statistical information on investment funds (IFs). It should therefore be recast in the interest of clarity.

(2) Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 provides that, in order to fulfil its statistical reporting requirements, the European Central Bank (ECB), assisted by the national central banks (NCBs), has the right to collect statistical information within the limits of the reference reporting population and as far as necessary to carry out the tasks of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It follows from Article 2(2), point (a), of that Regulation that IFs form part of the reference reporting population for the purposes of fulfilling the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements, inter alia, in the field of monetary and financial statistics.

(3) Article 3 of the same Regulation 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. The population of IFs covered by this Regulation should include alternative investment funds (AIFs) and undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) established within the territories of the Member States as defined in Directive 2011/61/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) (AIFMD) and Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) (UCITSD). To ensure consistency and comparability of statistics, it is important that all entities classified in the ‘Non-MMF investment funds (S.124)’ subsector of the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (ESA 2010) laid down in Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) are included in the actual reporting population. In some cases the definition of IFs may therefore include entities which do not fall within the scope of the AIFMD or UCITSD.

(4) Although regulations adopted under Article 34.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter the ‘Statute of the ESCB’) do not confer any rights or impose any obligations on Member States whose currency is not the euro (hereinafter the ‘non-euro area Member States’), Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB applies to both euro and non-euro area Member States. Recital 17 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 refers to the fact that Article 5 of the Statute of the ESCB, together with Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union, implies an obligation to design and implement at national level all the measures that the non-euro area Member States consider appropriate to collect the statistical information needed to fulfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements and make timely preparations in the field of statistics in order to become euro area Member States.

(5) In order to undertake its tasks, in particular to define and implement monetary policy and to contribute to the stability of the financial system, the ESCB requires high quality statistical information on the financial activities of IFs. The principal purpose of such information is to provide the ECB with a comprehensive statistical picture of the IF subsector in the Member States whose currency is the euro (hereinafter the ‘euro area Member States’), which are viewed as one economic territory. Information from other regulatory or commercial sources that is currently available does not provide a sufficiently comprehensive statistical picture of the IF subsector that is needed to undertake ESCB tasks, due to limitations in terms of the scope, coverage and the type of data available, the quality of the data and the level of harmonisation of the data available from those sources.

(6) The collection of statistical information on the financial activities of IFs is necessary to satisfy regular and ad hoc analytical needs and to support the ECB in carrying out monetary and financial analysis. That statistical information is also used by the ESCB to compile other statistics, in particular with regard to the euro area financial accounts, balance of payments and international investment position. For this purpose, statistical information related to investment income attributable to IF shareholders is required, which can be derived from the income and fee information required under this Regulation. To minimise the reporting burden for these requirements, some of the income information may be estimated by the relevant NCB and the fee information is required on an annual basis only.

(7) Statistical information collected pursuant to this Regulation is used to compile IF statistics on both an aggregated and a fund-by-fund basis, as well as to complement other sources of statistical information collected by the ECB, and to ensure that statistical information may be effectively integrated with those other sources, including securities holdings statistics collected in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1011/2012 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2012/24) (6), the Register of Institutions and Affiliates Data (RIAD) compiled in accordance with Guideline (EU) 2018/876 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2018/16) (7) and the centralised securities database (CSDB) compiled in accordance with Guideline (EU) 2022/971 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2022/25) (8). This allows for efficient and cost-effective use of statistical information collected from reporting agents, increasing their consistency and comparability and therefore their relevance and value for analytical purposes.

(8) Before adopting this Regulation for the definition and imposition of statistical reporting requirements, the ECB has assessed the merits and costs of the collection of new statistical information in accordance with Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 and considers that new and more frequent statistics, including statistical information on monthly income and annual fees paid by the shareholders to the IF and dividends paid by the IF and information on the classification of the IF, are required to enhance the quality and availability of data to the users of statistics on IFs when undertaking the tasks of the ESCB. The ECB has also consulted the European Commission on the draft Regulation, from which it has received comments.

(9) This Regulation lays down requirements primarily with regard to IFs. However, complete statistical information on holders of bearer shares issued by IFs may not be directly available from IFs. Therefore, it is necessary to make arrangements to allow NCBs to collect that statistical information, including from other sources and entities, in line with the most effective and accurate methods available at national level.

(10) To limit the reporting burden, NCBs should be allowed to collect the necessary information on IFs from the actual reporting population as part of a broader statistical reporting framework, provided that the fulfilment of the ECB’s statistical requirements is not hindered and the collection of the information in this manner is consistent with the statistical principles underlying European statistics produced by the ESCB, as set out in Article 3a of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98. In order to foster transparency, in such cases it is appropriate to inform the reporting agents that statistical information is collected to fulfil other purposes.

(11) In view of the significant growth in importance of the IF subsector for the transmission of monetary policy and financial stability surveillance and assessment, more detailed statistical information is needed on a monthly basis. This will allow for more timely policy advice and improved quality of analysis, for instance by better identification of events and causality in the economy and the financial markets, and significantly facilitating the incorporation of the data and the related analysis into the regular policy notes to the Governing Council.

(12) In order to ensure the reporting burden is not excessive, NCBs should be able to grant derogations to IFs with certain requirements and limits. It should be possible to grant certain derogations to IFs with frequency and timing constraints regarding their asset valuation so that they may fulfil the reporting requirements with a frequency and timing that are better aligned with those constraints. In addition, it should be possible to grant derogations to IFs on security-by-security reporting of securities without valid identification codes, where these have a low market value in relation to total securities holdings at national or individual IF level.

(13) The collection of security-by-security information under this Regulation is done in accordance with the definitions as set out in Regulation (EU) No 1011/2012 (ECB/2012/24).

(14) The quality of the statistical information collected, and analyses performed by the ECB, would be improved if it received data from European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) reported under AIFMD and UCITSD that are necessary to undertake the ESCB’s tasks. The ECB should therefore cooperate with ESMA in the pursuit of its objectives under this Regulation and seek to enhance the efficiency of the production of statistical information used for these purposes, including by reducing any unnecessary duplications and inconsistencies between the reporting frameworks for ESCB tasks and supervisory purposes as well as improving data standardisation, efficient sharing and use of data.

(15) The standards for the protection and use of confidential statistical information as laid down in Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 should apply, permitting the sharing of such information with the European Supervisory Authorities where necessary to carry out their duties.

(16) Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 provides that the ECB has the power to impose sanctions on reporting agents which fail to comply with statistical reporting requirements set out in ECB regulations or decisions.

(17) In order to ensure the appropriate continuity in the reporting of statistical information related to IFs, the requirements in force prior to the date of application of this Regulation should be grandfathered for the entire transition period.

(18) 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 affect the reporting burden. Accordingly, the Executive Board of the ECB should be able to make such technical amendments and account should be taken of the views of the Statistics Committee of the ESCB, when following this procedure.

(19) To ensure continuity in the reporting of statistical information concerning IFs and to allow implementation to start from 1 December 2025, this Regulation should enter into force without delay. However, it should not apply until 1 December 2025 in order to allow sufficient time for NCBs and IFs to prepare for the relevant reporting requirements. In order to ensure that derogations pursuant to this Regulation are granted by NCBs on a sound legal basis and to ensure that these derogations may be notified to reporting agents in good time, those provisions on derogations should apply from the date of entry into force of this Regulation.

(20) In view of national accounting rules that may allow certain IFs to value their assets at less than monthly frequency, it is no longer considered necessary for the Governing Council to determine these categories. As provided for in this Regulation, it is instead considered appropriate for NCBs to have the discretion to grant such derogations in view of the limited categories of IFs to which these may apply. Decision (EU) 2015/32 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/62) (9) should therefore be repealed,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Subject matter and scope

This Regulation establishes the reporting requirements for investment funds (IFs), and in certain cases other financial intermediaries (OFIs) and monetary financial institutions (MFIs), with regard to statistical information on their assets, liabilities, income received, dividends paid, and fees paid by the shareholders to the IF.

Article 2

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(2) ‘resident’ means established within the territory of a Member State. A legal entity is established within the territory of a Member State in which it is authorised or registered or has its registered office. If the entity is not incorporated, it is established where it is domiciled, having regard to the Member State whose legal system governs the creation and continued existence of the entity;

(3) ‘relevant NCB’ means the NCB of the euro area Member State in which the IF is resident;

(4) ‘security-by-security information’ means information broken down into individual securities;

(5) ‘IF shares/units’ means shares or units, including in the form of equity capital, issued by IFs that are included in the list of IFs for statistical purposes and includes IF registered shares/units and IF bearer shares/units;

(6) ‘IF registered shares/units’ means IF shares/units in respect of which, in accordance with national legislation, a record is kept identifying the holders of its shares/units including information on the residency and institutional sector of the holder;

(8) ‘monetary financial institution’ (MFI) means ‘monetary financial institution (MFI)’ as defined in Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/379 (ECB/2021/2);

(9) ‘other financial intermediaries except insurance corporations and pension funds’ (OFIs) means ‘other financial intermediaries except insurance corporations and pension funds’ as defined in paragraphs 2.86 to 2.94 of Annex A to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12) and excluding financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions (FVCs) as defined in paragraph 2.90 of that Annex;

(10) ‘custodian’ means an entity belonging to the ‘financial corporations sector’ as defined in paragraph 2.55 of Annex A to Regulation (EU) No 549/2013 and undertaking the safekeeping and administration of financial instruments for the account of clients, including custodianship and related services such as cash/collateral management as specified in Section B, point (1), of Annex I to Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (13);

(11) ‘undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities’ (UCITS) means ‘undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities’ as referred to in Article 1(2) of Directive (EC) No 2009/65 of the European Parliament and of the Council (14);

(12) ‘non-UCITS IF’ means IFs that are not UCITS as defined in point (11).

Article 3

Actual reporting population

Article 4

List of IFs for statistical purposes

Article 5

Statistical reporting requirements

(a) end-of-month stock data on the assets and liabilities of IFs specified in Table 1 of Annex I;

(b) monthly flow data on either the revaluation adjustments or transactions of IFs, or both, specified in Table 2 of Annex I, in accordance with the methodology set out in Annex III;