New regulations on money and banking statistics and the application of minimum reserves

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has adopted Regulations ECB/2003/9 and ECB/2003/10. Regulation ECB/2003/9 repeals and replaces Regulation ECB/1998/15 of 1 December 1998 on the application of minimum reserves. Regulation ECB/2003/10 amends Regulation ECB/2001/13 of 22 November 2001 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector.

The main purpose of Regulation ECB/2003/9 is to implement changes to the Eurosystem's operational framework for monetary policy (details of these changes can be found in the ECB's press release of 1 August 2003). In addition, it streamlines the procedure for calculating and notifying minimum reserves (Article 5 of the Regulation).

The main purpose of Regulation ECB/2003/10 is to require monetary financial institutions to report quarterly statistical data that separately identify their positions in respect of each of the acceding countries, as well as their positions denominated in the currencies of these countries, from 1 May 2004, the date of their accession to the European Union. This amendment ensures that positions reported in respect of the new EU Member States and positions denominated in their currencies are treated in the same way as the country/currency positions in respect of the current EU Member States which have not adopted the euro. Care has been taken to ensure that the additional reporting burden imposed on reporting agents will be kept to a minimum, given the modest size of many of the new positions which will be covered by the Regulation.

The new regulations were published in all Community languages in the Official Journal of the European Union on 2 October 2003 and can be obtained from the ECB's website (www.ecb.europa.eu).