BCL Circular 2001/166 of 5 July 2001 — Instructions on Modifications to Balance of Payments Data Collection

Luxembourg, 5 July 2001

To all credit institutions and to the financial services of the Post and Telecommunications Company (Post Office Current Accounts Service)

CIRCULAR BCL 2001/166

Instructions concerning the modifications to the collection of data relating to the balance of payments

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

1. Introduction

The Grand Ducal Regulation of 10 November 1944, as amended by the Law of 28 June 2000, assigns the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg (BCL) and the Central Service for Statistics and Economic Studies (STATEC) the mission to jointly establish a balance of payments for Luxembourg.

The BCL and STATEC have decided, following consultation with the Balance of Payments Advisory Committee, which includes - in addition to the BCL and STATEC - nine local banks, the Association of Banks and Bankers Luxembourg, as well as the financial services of the Post and Telecommunications Company (Post Office Current Accounts Service), to maintain the data collection system established by the Belgian-Luxembourg Institute of Exchange (IBLC) and to simplify it as much as possible. These modifications were communicated in Circular 2001/165.

This circular serves to transmit the collection of instructions to credit institutions and the financial services of the Post and Telecommunications Company (Post Office Current Accounts Service) for the purpose of collecting data intended for the compilation of Luxembourg's balance of payments. This collection was subject to consultation by the Balance of Payments Advisory Committee as well as the BCL Statistical Committee. It translates into technical terms the general instructions contained in Circular 2001/165 and will apply from 1 January 2002.

The following paragraphs briefly present the technical changes compared to the current system for recording payments and transactions with foreign countries. For more details, the reader is requested to refer to the collection in the annex. These changes only enter into force from 1 January 2002. Reference should be made to Circular 2001/165 concerning the application of the transitional period.

2. Recording Thresholds

The modifications to the thresholds compared to the old system described in the Ministerial Regulation of 13 November 1998 are as follows:

Object of Thresholds	New System (EUR)	Old System (EUR)	Object of Thresholds
Transactions carried out on behalf of clients	No payment with an amount below this threshold must be recorded in the register. This limit applies to individual payments, even in the case of payments relating to transactions of the same nature, carried out simultaneously, where the total amounts would exceed this threshold.	12,500	9,000	Upper limit of “small amounts”: below this limit, the exact nature of the transaction must not be communicated by resident clients of credit institutions (Article 5 §2 of Regulation L 1 and Article 5 §2, Article 8 §1, Article 9 §2, §4, §5 and §6, and Article 10 §1 and §5 of Regulation L 2)
Transactions carried out on own account	Modification of the list of operation codes that must be reported from the first euro.	0	0	Obligation to report transactions on own account regardless of amount. (Article 7 §2 of Regulation L 2). By way of derogation from these provisions, only transactions reported under the operation codes listed in Circular 99-006 must be reported from the first euro.
Amount from which identification of the resident counterparty is required.	12,500	25,000	Amount from which identification of the resident counterparty is required (Article 5 §3 and §4 of Regulation L 1 and Article 9 §3 and §7 and Article 10 §3 of Regulation L 2)
Abolition of code 020 / 2,500,000	Mandatory identification of the other resident credit institution involved and prohibition of aggregating the recording under “020” (Article 3 §4 and §5 of Regulation L 2)

3. Tables of Claims and Obligations

The tables of claims and obligations are abolished in the new system. Consequently, the provisions provided for in Articles 17, 18 and 23 of Regulation L2 of the Ministerial Regulation of 13 November 1998 no longer apply.

4. Codification of the economic nature of transactions with foreign countries

The list of the economic nature of transactions with foreign countries is modified compared to the list in the Ministerial Regulation of 13 November 1998. The changes are characterized by the removal of certain operation codes from the list of economic nature of transactions with foreign countries and the modification of certain definitions of operation codes referring to Belgium or the Belgian-Luxembourg Economic Union (UEBL). Furthermore, certain operation codes, defined in the statement models of Circular IBLC 98-027, are removed in the new statement model.

Annex 1 to Regulation L3 of the IBLC is modified and replaced by the list of economic nature of transactions with foreign countries in the collection of instructions attached.

a) Abolished operation codes and where transactions no longer need to be recorded

Transactions that were recorded under certain operation codes of the old system are no longer to be communicated in the new system. This reduction concerns the following operation codes:

Code	Old Definition
010	Spot exchange transactions
012	Euro conversions – old national currencies of countries participating in the European Economic and Monetary Union
020	Transfers between resident credit institutions
075	Debits or credits in advance accounts or deposit accounts for one year or less
079	Sum of all decimal parts of the amounts listed in the transaction statement
500 to 519	Banknote transactions
650	Indeterminate transactions (extra-UEBL)
651	Indeterminate transactions (intra-UEBL)
981	Total of operation code 020
982	Total of codes 071, 072, 073, and 090 to 799
986	Previous position
987	Totals (010 to 982)
988	Total of the balances of debtor accounts and total of the balances of creditor accounts

Circular IBLC 98-027 “Models of statements 01, 02 and 03 to be used when communicating daily register data on paper medium” is repealed. A single statement model, presented in the collection, replaces the previous ones.

b) Abolished operation codes and where transactions must be recorded under other operation codes

Transactions that were recorded under the following operation codes of the old system must be recorded using the operation codes of the new system.

Code	Old Definition
330	Interest paid or received by Belgian public administrations on money market instruments and other debt securities with a maturity of one year or less, excluding interest resulting from the settlement of transactions involving the exchange of interest rates or linked to the evolution of interest rates (code 711);<br>- Coupons of debt securities with a maturity of one year or less issued by a Belgian public administration.
331	Interest paid or received by Belgian public administrations on bonds and other debt securities with a maturity of more than one year;<br>- Coupons of debt securities with a maturity of more than one year issued by a Belgian public administration.
332	Interest paid or received by Belgian public administrations on other financial transactions, excluding interest resulting from the settlement of transactions involving the exchange of interest rates or linked to the evolution of interest rates (code 711).
530	Debt securities with a maturity of one year or less issued by Belgian public administrations<br>Purchases or sales resulting from or not from the exercise of options or “futures”, subscriptions or repayments by or to non-residents of debt securities with a maturity of one year or less issued by Belgian public administrations.
531	Debt securities with a maturity of more than one year issued by Belgian public administrations<br>Purchases or sales resulting from or not from the exercise of options or “futures”, subscriptions or repayments by or to non-residents of bonds and all other debt securities with a maturity of more than one year issued by Belgian public administrations.
750	Payment between a resident of Belgium and a resident of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg relating to transactions not falling under:<br>- the list of current transactions (section 1 of this list);<br>- the list of banknote transactions (section 3 of this list);<br>- codes 310, 314, 315, 316, 390, 399, 418, 651 and 799 of this list;<br>- the supplementary list for the exclusive use of resident credit institutions.

Transactions recorded under codes 330, 331, 332, relating to the revenues of Belgian public administrations, must be recorded in the new system under codes 301, 302, 303 or 309.

Transactions recorded under code 530 (respectively 531), relating to transactions on debt securities issued by Belgian public administrations, must be recorded in the new system under codes 429 or 478 (respectively 424 or 473).

Transactions recorded under code 750, relating to certain transactions carried out between a resident of Belgium and a resident of Luxembourg, must be recorded according to the code corresponding to the economic nature of the transaction in the new system.

c) Modification of the treatment of transactions relating to Belgian public administrations

Belgian public administrations are no longer considered as such, but as non-residents belonging to the euro zone. The removal of operation codes 330 to 332, 530 and 531 relating to these administrations leads to modifications of the definitions of operation codes where they were mentioned:

Code	New Definition	Old Definition
301	Coupons of bonds or other debt securities with fixed or floating rates<br>Revenues of bonds, money market instruments or other debt securities with fixed or floating rates, excluding:<br>- those paid or received by Luxembourg public administrations (codes 335 and 336);<br>- payments to non-residents of coupons of bonds, money market instruments or other debt securities with fixed or floating rates of non-resident issuers (code 309).	Coupons of bonds or other debt securities with fixed or floating rates<br>Revenues of bonds, money market instruments or other debt securities with fixed or floating rates, excluding:<br>- those paid or received by Belgian public administrations (codes 330 and 331) or by Luxembourg public administrations (codes 335 and 336);<br>- payments to non-residents of coupons of bonds, money market instruments or other debt securities with fixed or floating rates of issuers other than those established in Belgium or the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (code 309).
302	Interest<br>Interest paid or received by residents other than credit institutions (code 303) or public administrations (codes 335, 336 and 337), including financing costs relating to international trade or services transactions, but excluding interest in favor of or on behalf of non-resident banking or non-banking financial institutions (code 304) and interest resulting from the settlement of transactions involving the exchange of interest rates or linked to the evolution of interest rates (code 711).	Interest<br>Interest paid or received by residents other than credit institutions (code 303) or public administrations (codes 330, 331, 332, 335, 336 and 337), including financing costs relating to international trade or services transactions, but excluding interest in favor of or on behalf of non-resident banking or non-banking financial institutions (code 304) and interest resulting from the settlement of transactions involving the exchange of interest rates or linked to the evolution of interest rates (code 711).
304	Interest of non-resident banking or non-banking financial institutions<br>Interest paid or received by residents other than credit institutions (code 303) or public administrations (codes 335, 336 and 337) in favor of or on behalf of non-resident banking or non-banking financial institutions, excluding interest resulting from the settlement of transactions involving the exchange of interest rates or linked to the evolution of interest rates (code 711).	Interest of non-resident banking or non-banking financial institutions<br>Interest paid or received by residents other than credit institutions (code 303) or public administrations (codes 330, 331, 332, 335, 336 and 337) in favor of or on behalf of non-resident banking or non-banking financial institutions, excluding interest resulting from the settlement of transactions involving the exchange of interest rates or linked to the evolution of interest rates (code 711).

d) Modifications of territorial references

References to Belgium and the UEBL in the list of the economic nature of transactions with foreign countries have been modified as follows:

New List	Old List
abroad in the European Economic and Monetary Union	in the countries of the European Economic and Monetary Union other than Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Non-residents other than those established in Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg	Non-residents other than those established in Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
abroad outside the UEBL	in Luxembourg in UEBL

Transactions related to Belgium are recorded differently in the new system. The modifications presented in the table above apply to the following operation codes:

Code	Old Title
300, 301, 308 and 309	Financial revenues and revenues from private sector investments
430 to 438	Direct investments outside the UEBL by private sector residents
484 to 488	Direct investments by non-residents in the private sector of the UEBL.
421 to 429	Securities transactions of issuers established in countries of the Economic and Monetary Union other than Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
473 and 478	Securities transactions of issuers established outside the UEBL – collection by non-residents
491 to 499	Securities transactions of the private sector of the UEBL
580	Financial transactions of Belgian and Luxembourg public administrations – participations in international institutions or in non-resident companies

The new definitions of the operation codes are included in the attached collection.

5. List of country codes

International organizations headquartered in Belgium are no longer grouped with those headquartered in Luxembourg. Consequently, modifications are made to the definitions of the following country codes:

Code	New Definition	Old Definition
XB	International organizations headquartered abroad, excluding organizations of the European Union as well as NATO and SHAPE<br>(and with the exception of the Bank for International Settlements - Basel - code: XH)	International organizations headquartered outside the territory of the UEBL, excluding organizations of the European Union as well as NATO and SHAPE<br>(and with the exception of the Bank for International Settlements - Basel - code: XH)
XC	NATO, SHAPE and subordinate organizations and services headquartered in Luxembourg	NATO, SHAPE and subordinate organizations and services headquartered on the territory of the UEBL
XD	Organizations of the European Union headquartered in Luxembourg	Organizations of the European Union headquartered on the territory of the UEBL
XE	International organizations headquartered in Luxembourg, excluding organizations of the European Union as well as NATO and SHAPE	International organizations headquartered on the territory of the UEBL, excluding organizations of the European Union as well as NATO and SHAPE
XF	NATO, SHAPE and subordinate organizations and services headquartered abroad	NATO, SHAPE and subordinate organizations and services headquartered outside the territory of the UEBL
XG	Organizations of the European Union headquartered abroad<br>(with the exception of the European Central Bank - Frankfurt – code: XA)	Organizations of the European Union headquartered outside the territory of the UEBL<br>(with the exception of the European Central Bank - Frankfurt - code: XA)

The country code XA remains unchanged. The details of the international organizations corresponding to these codes are described in the attached collection.

6. Identification of collective investment schemes

Individual identification of compartments of collective investment schemes (CIS) must be carried out for any transaction carried out by such an entity on its assets (e.g., purchase/sale of securities). On the other hand, individual identification must not be carried out for transactions on the units of CIS compartments (subscription/issuance of units – code 492), only the generic code is required. The following table applies when individual identification is required.

	New System	Old System
Identification Number	identification number composed of the numbers assigned by the CSSF to CIS and compartments	generic code 4442
Type of ID Number	26	25

If individual identification is not required, the generic code 4442 accompanied by the identification number type 25 remains applicable. This identification via the generic code 4442 is also mandatory if individual identification of the CIS compartment is not possible because the credit institution acts as an intermediary on behalf of a CIS compartment.

Thus, for the purchase, sale, subscription or redemption of units of CIS compartments, the credit institution must indicate in its register the operation code 492, the generic code 4442 as well as the identification number type 25.

7. Aggregation Factor

Resident credit institutions may group transactions of the same day for which all required information, except for the amount, is identical. Resident credit institutions are not required to indicate this explicitly in their transaction register. Thus, the use of field 18 repeated in the “Data Recording” message titled “Aggregation Indicator” is optional.

	New System	Old System
Aggregation Indicator	optional use	mandatory use if the credit institution aggregates transactions of the same day

8. Assimilation of precious metals held in account to a currency

Precious metals, including gold, are no longer required to be assimilated to a currency in the context of spot exchange transactions. On the other hand, the currency XAU is maintained for recording other transactions in the register.

9. Transmission of the register to the BCL

The structure of the transmission file remains identical, the only changes made are the following:

	New System	Old System
File Name	variable file name, namely<br>ONNNNNNNNNYYYYMMDDRRR.TBP	fixed file name, namely<br>BBP1REPT.TXT
Identification of the credit institution responding	matricule assigned by the BCL	number assigned by the IBLC for Luxembourg
Type of identification number of the credit institution submitting	23 if the identification number is the matricule assigned by the BCL	21 if the identification number is the number assigned by the IBLC to a Luxembourg credit institution
Transmission Medium	LIBRAC infrastructure	magnetic medium

For any information concerning the application of this circular, please contact Mr. Germain Stammet (tel. 4774 4279) or Mr. Philippe Arondel (tel. 4774 4269).

Please accept, Madam, Sir, the assurance of our distinguished sentiments.

BANQUE CENTRALE DU LUXEMBOURG
The Management

Serge KOLB Andrée BILLON Yves MERSCH

ANNEX:
Collection of instructions to credit institutions and to the financial services of the Post and Telecommunications Company (Post Office Current Accounts Service) for the purpose of collecting statistical data intended for the compilation of the balance of payments of Luxembourg.