2012/120/EU: Guideline of the European Central Bank of 9 December 2011 on the statistical reporting requirements of the European Central Bank in the field of external statistics (recast) (ECB/2011/23)

For the purposes of this Guideline: (1) ‘external statistics’ means balance of payments and international investment position statistics, the international reserves template and statistics on the cross-border shipment of euro banknotes; (2) ‘balance of payments’ means the statistical statement that reports, with the appropriate breakdown, international transactions during the period under review; (3) ‘international investment position’ means the balance sheet that reports, with the appropriate breakdown, the stock of international financial assets and liabilities at a reference date; (4) ‘international reserves template’ means the statistical statement that reports, with the appropriate breakdown, stocks of reserve assets, other foreign currency assets and reserve-related liabilities of the Eurosystem at a reference date; (5) ‘cross-border shipment of euro banknotes’ means the export and/or import of euro banknotes; (6) ‘export of euro banknotes’ means any delivery of euro banknotes from an NCB or from another monetary financial institution (MFI) resident in the euro area to any legal person outside the euro area; (7) ‘import of euro banknotes’ means any delivery of euro banknotes to an NCB or to another MFI resident in the euro area from any legal person outside the euro area; (8) ‘resident’ and ‘residing’ have the same meaning as defined in Article 1(4) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98; (9) ‘rest of the world’ means all international organisations and residents in all territories other than a specific euro area Member State, which act as counterparts to the residents in that Member State; (10) ‘international transaction’ means any transaction that creates or redeems, in full or in part, claims or debts, or any transaction that implies the transfer of a right over an object between residents in a euro area Member State and non-residents in that Member State; (11) ‘international positions’ means the stock of financial claims on and financial liabilities to non-residents in a euro area Member State. International positions also encompass: (a) land, other tangible non-produced assets and other immovable assets physically located outside a euro area Member State that are owned by residents in that Member State, and/or physically located inside a euro area Member State and owned by non-residents; and (b) monetary gold and special drawing rights (SDRs) owned by residents; (12) ‘revaluations’ means holding gains and losses on international positions arising from changes to the exchange rate and/or other prices; (13) ‘reserve assets’ means highly liquid, marketable and creditworthy claims held by the Eurosystem on non-euro area residents and denominated in currencies other than the euro, plus gold, reserve positions in the IMF and SDR holdings; (14) ‘other foreign currency assets’ means (a) claims held by the Eurosystem on euro area residents denominated in currencies other than the euro; and (b) claims held by the Eurosystem on non-euro area residents denominated in currencies other than the euro which do not meet the liquidity, marketability and creditworthiness criteria of reserve assets; (15) ‘reserve-related liabilities’ means predetermined and contingent short-term net drains on the Eurosystem, similar to reserve assets and other foreign currency assets of the Eurosystem; (16) ‘security-by-security’ data collection means the collection of data broken down into individual securities.

1 The NCBs shall make available to the ECB data on the international transactions, positions and revaluations, as well as on the stocks of reserve assets, other foreign currency assets and reserve-related liabilities, necessary to enable the ECB to compile the aggregated balance of payments and international investment position statistics and the international reserves template of the euro area. The data shall be made available as defined in Tables 1 to 5 of Annex II and in accordance with the deadlines defined in Article 3.

2 The NCBs shall also make available to the ECB data on cross-border shipments of euro banknotes as defined in Table 6 of Annex II. The NCBs shall report data on cross-border shipments of euro banknotes where the best estimate of the total amount of all cross-border shipments within the previous year exceeds EUR 1000 million.

3 The data shall be accompanied by readily available information on single major events and on reasons for revisions, when the magnitude of the change to the data caused by such single major events or revisions is significant or on request by the ECB. Available information on single major events shall also be exchanged with other euro area NCBs in the framework of existing arrangements, for instance in the context of foreign direct investment.

4 For monthly and quarterly transactions and quarterly positions, the required data shall be made available to the ECB as laid down in Annexes I, II and III, which conform with current international standards, notably the BPM6. For the monthly international reserves template, the required data shall be made available to the ECB as laid down in Annexes I, II and III, which conform with the IMF ‘International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity: Guidelines for a Data Template’.

5 The required data on the balance of payments shall be made available on a monthly and quarterly basis. The required data on the international reserves template shall be made available on a monthly basis. The required data on the international investment position shall be made available on a quarterly basis. The required data on cross-border shipments of euro banknotes shall be made available on a monthly basis.

6 Portfolio investment collection systems shall conform with one of the models set out in the table contained in Annex VI.

7 In the event of an enlargement of the euro area, both the NCB of that Member State and the NCBs of all other euro area Member States at the time that Member State adopts the euro shall provide the ECB with back data to enable the compilation of aggregates covering the euro area in its new composition. These NCBs shall provide back data from 2008 on a best estimate basis. The items and breakdowns to be reported shall be decided by the Executive Board of the ECB on proposal by the ESCB Statistics Committee on a case-by-case basis. If the Member State that adopts the euro joined the Union after 2007, the back data shall cover, as a minimum, the period from the date on which that Member State joined the Union.

8 In the event of an enlargement of the euro area, those euro area Member States that were part of a monetary union for a period prior to the physical introduction of the euro shall provide, for that period, back data for that monetary union as a whole. By derogation from Article 2(7), the Banque centrale du Luxembourg shall not be required to transmit back data for the period ending December 2001. The Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique shall transmit joint back data for Belgium and Luxembourg for the period ending December 2001. The same procedure is applied in case of any back data regarding a period prior to the physical introduction of the euro required in case of methodological changes or any other modification in the requirements.

1 The data required for the compilation of the monthly balance of payments of the euro area and the data on revaluations of euro area reserve assets shall be made available to the ECB by 2.00 p.m. Central European Time (CET) of the 44th calendar day following the end of the month to which the data relate.

2 The data required for the compilation of the quarterly balance of payments and the quarterly international investment position of the euro area shall be made available to the ECB by 2.00 p.m. of: (a) the 85th calendar day following the end of the quarter to which the data relate, from 2014 to 2016; (b) the 82nd calendar day following the end of the quarter to which the data relate, in 2017 and 2018; (c) the 80th calendar day following the end of the quarter to which the data relate, from 2019.

3 The data required for the compilation of the international reserves template of the Eurosystem shall be made available to the ECB by 2.00 p.m. of the 10th calendar day following the end of the month to which the data relate.

4 The data required on the cross-border shipments of euro banknotes as defined in Table 6 of Annex II shall be made available to the ECB by 2.00 p.m. of the 35th calendar day following the end of the month to which the data relate.

5 Where a deadline referred to in paragraphs 1 to 4 falls on TARGET2 closing day, the deadline shall be extended to the following TARGET2 operating day .

6 The national collection of the data referred to in paragraphs 1 to 5 shall be organised with a view to meeting these deadlines.

1 Where the sources for part or all of the data described in Article 2 are competent authorities other than NCBs, NCBs shall establish the appropriate modalities of cooperation with these authorities to ensure a permanent structure for transmission of data which fulfils the ECB's standards, in particular on data quality, and any other of its requirements as set out in this Guideline, unless the same result is already achieved by national legislation.

2 For the financial account of the balance of payments, the related income, and the international investment position, the NCBs shall be responsible for ensuring that the standards regarding concepts, methodology and data collection, compilation, analysis and transmission in these areas are maintained and developed.

3 Where competent authorities other than NCBs are the source of statistical information marked as confidential, such information shall be used by the ECB in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2533/98.

The required statistical information shall be made available to the ECB in a form which meets the requirements laid down in Annex IV.

1 Without prejudice to the ECB's monitoring tasks as laid down in Annex V, the NCBs shall, in cooperation with other competent authorities as mentioned in Article 4 where relevant, ensure the monitoring and the assessment of the quality of statistical information made available to the ECB. The ECB assesses these data in a similar manner. The assessment shall be carried out in a timely manner. The Executive Board of the ECB shall report yearly to the Governing Council on the quality of the data.

2 The assessment of the quality of data on portfolio investment transactions and positions, as well as on related income is subject to sufficient coverage and quality of the securities information in the CSDB.

3 Where the data for an item in Tables 1 to 5 of Annex II are of negligible or of insignificant size for euro area and national statistics, or the data for that item cannot be collected at reasonable cost, best estimates based on sound statistical methodologies shall be permitted provided the analytical value of the statistics is not compromised. In addition, best estimates shall be permitted for the following breakdowns in Tables 1, 2 and 6 of Annex II: (a) sub-items of primary income on other investment; (b) sub-items of other primary income and of secondary income; (c) sub-items of capital transfers in the capital account; (d) geographical breakdown of financial derivatives liabilities; (e) reinvested earnings credits on investment funds shares without an ISIN code; (f) breakdown of cross-border banknote shipments by denomination.

4 The ECB's monitoring of the quality of statistical information may include scrutiny of revisions made to these data: firstly, to include the latest assessment of the statistical information, thereby improving the quality; secondly, to ensure as far as possible consistency between the corresponding balance of payments items for each of the different frequencies.

Taking account of the views of the ESCB Statistics Committee, the Executive Board of the ECB shall be entitled to make technical amendments to the Annexes to this Guideline, provided that such amendments neither change the underlying conceptual framework nor affect the reporting burden of reporting agents in Member States.

1 The first transmission of data relating to balance of payments and international investment position statistics, and international reserves template, shall take place in June 2014.

2 The first transmission of data relating to cross-border shipments of euro banknotes shall take place in March 2013.

1 Guideline ECB/2004/15 is repealed from 1 June 2014.

2 References to Guideline ECB/2004/15 shall be construed as references to this Guideline.

1 This Guideline shall enter into force on 1 March 2012.

2 Without prejudice to Article 8(2), this Guideline shall apply from 1 June 2014.

This Guideline is addressed to all Eurosystem central banks.