New ECB regulation in the field of money and banking statistics

At its meeting on 22 November 2001 the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) approved a new Regulation concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions (MFI) sector, which will replace the Regulation of 1 December 1998 (ECB/1998/16)^[1].

Since December 1998, the ECB has been publishing harmonised monetary statistics for the euro area which are derived largely from the MFI balance sheet statistics that NCBs collect from reporting agents in accordance with Regulation ECB/1998/16. These statistics had originally been defined by the European Monetary Institute (the predecessor of the ECB) as the minimum that the ECB would require for monetary policy purposes at the start of Monetary Union.

The new Regulation will include a number of essential enhancements to the statistical requirements. The main change lies in an expansion in the range of stock statistics collected, in particular the full integration into the monthly collection of data currently collected only on a quarterly basis, that will permit a detailed sectoral breakdown of deposits included in M3 and of lending by MFIs. The new Regulation will cover the collection of data on the write-off/write-down of loans and the revaluation of securities needed to compile flow statistics of an acceptable quality for credit. These more detailed data are needed for a proper analysis of the monetary aggregates and their counterparts, which is a prerequisite for an informed assessment of the risks to price stability. In addition, some technical updates will be carried out^[2].

This is the first part of a statistical package, the aim of which is to make essential improvements to the statistical information available for the fulfilment of the tasks of the European System of Central Banks and, in particular, its task of defining and implementing the single monetary policy. The second part of this statistical package is a new Regulation concerning statistics on interest rates applied by MFIs to deposits and loans vis-a-vis households and non-financial corporations, planned for adoption next month.

It should be stressed that every effort has been made to minimise the extra burden on reporting institutions; the intention is to keep these reporting requirements stable for at least five years.

Finally, while information which permits the exclusion of holdings by non-residents of the euro area of money market fund (MMF) shares/units from M3 is already available, it is not yet appropriately provided for in the legislation. It is therefore intended to require MMFs, in their capacity as issuers of shares/units, as well as other MFIs and "Other financial intermediaries", to the extent that these hold shares/units issued by MMFs in their custody or otherwise transact in shares/units on their own behalf or on behalf of third parties, to distinguish between holdings of residents of the euro area and holdings of non-residents. It is planned to announce the precise modalities of this reporting requirement in early 2002.