Annual publication of the "List of monetary financial institutions and institutions subject to minimum reserves" and the "List of monetary financial institutions in the acceding countries" as at end-December 2005

The “List of monetary financial institutions and institutions subject to minimum reserves” (“List of MFIs”) is published today by the European Central Bank (ECB) in accordance with Article 3.2 of the Regulation of the European Central Bank of 22 November 2001 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (ECB/2001/13), as amended, and Article 2.3 of the Regulation of the European Central Bank of 12 September 2003 on the application of minimum reserves (ECB/2003/9).

The List of MFIs enables the production of a comprehensive and consistent balance sheet for the money-creating sector in the euro area and ensures that the information on the statistical reporting population is as complete, accurate and homogeneous as possible. The list of institutions subject to minimum reserves is based on Article 19.1 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, which empowers the ECB to require credit institutions established in the euro area to hold minimum reserves in pursuance of monetary policy objectives.

An update of the List of MFIs is released on a monthly basis and can be downloaded in text format from the ECB’s website (see below for details). The full list and updates are made available to the public on the last business day of each calendar month.

The ECB is also publishing the “List of monetary financial institutions in the acceding countries” (“List of AC MFIs”), a comprehensive and homogeneous list of MFIs in the two countries that are preparing for membership of the European Union (i.e. Bulgaria and Romania). In order to achieve a high degree of consistency and comparability of information, the countries contributing to the List of AC MFIs have adhered to the ECB’s harmonised definition of MFIs as far as this is possible within their statistical frameworks.

The accurate recording of the MFI population in the acceding countries is seen as a particularly important contribution to the conceptual and practical harmonisation work necessary to prepare the compilation of monetary aggregates, which are harmonised with euro area definitions.

The List of MFIs and the List of AC MFIs concern the monetary financial institutions sectors as at the end of December 2005 and are the ninth and sixth publications in their respective series.

Both publications will be made available in the “Monetary financial institutions” part of the “Statistics/Money, banking and financial markets” section of the ECB’s website.