Circular BCL 2000/158 of 25 February 2000 — Modification of Statistical Tables S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet"

Luxembourg, 25 February 2000
To all credit institutions
CIRCULAR BCL 2000/158
Modification of Statistical Tables S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On 23 November 1998, the Council (EC) adopted Regulation No 2533/98 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (ECB). This Regulation complements the framework of the ECB's statistical activities necessary to enable the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) to perform its functions by defining the natural and legal persons subject to reporting obligations, the confidentiality regime, and adequate implementation and sanction provisions, in accordance with Article 5.4 of the Statutes of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank.

Following this Council Regulation, the Governing Council of the ECB adopted ECB Regulation 1998/16 on the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector.1

The ECB's statistical reporting requirements within the framework of the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions (MFI) sector are governed by three essential rules.

First, the ECB must receive comparable, reliable, and up-to-date statistical information, collected under similar conditions throughout the euro area.

Second, the reporting obligations established in the Regulation must respect the principles of transparency and legal certainty. The Regulation is therefore binding and applies directly throughout the euro area. It imposes direct obligations on legal or natural persons, subject to sanctions that may be imposed by the ECB if reporting requirements are not met.

1 Regulation of the European Central Bank of 1 December 1998 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (ECB/1998/16)

Finally, the ECB has minimized the reporting burden as much as possible. Thus, the statistical data collected by the National Central Banks (NCBs) under the aforementioned Regulation also serve for the calculation of the reserve base in accordance with the ECB's Regulation on required reserves.

The statistical information subject to reporting in accordance with the ECB's statistical requirements and the minimum standards to be met are detailed in the aforementioned ECB Regulation as well as in Annexes 4.1 to 4.4 of the document "The Single Monetary Policy in Phase III - General Documentation on the Monetary Policy Instruments and Procedures of the ESCB" and have been communicated to credit institutions by the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg (BCL).

1. Objectives

Based on these documents, the BCL modifies the existing collection system by this Circular in order to achieve the following objectives:

1. Full coverage of the European Central Bank's requirements for banking and monetary statistics.
   The statistical tables S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet" have been modified to provide all information necessary for the calculation of the required reserve.

2. Consistency with data collected for prudential supervision purposes.
   This consistency, even if not possible for all items, facilitates the understanding of the new tables and contributes to the quality control of the collected data.

3. Compatibility with the ESA95 standard (European Standards for National Accounts 1995).
   Compliance of the collected data with the ESA95 standard will facilitate their use in the field of national accounting and in the balance of payments, thereby avoiding, as far as possible, additional surveys.

4. Main Modifications

The modifications concern essentially table S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and, subsidiarily, table S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet".

We wish to draw your attention to a modification regarding the calculation of required reserves, whereby credit institutions will calculate the amount of this reserve themselves.
The modifications affect both the structure of the tables and the detail of the information to be reported.

2.1. Modification of the table structure

• The amount of the reserve requirement calculated by the credit institution based on the elements of its liabilities is to be reported. The BCL will verify the amount of the reserve requirement before the start of the maintenance period to which it relates. In the event that a discrepancy is observed, the BCL will intervene with the concerned credit institution to request explanations or even a correction of the statistical report. If the BCL does not intervene with the concerned credit institution before the start of the maintenance period, the latter may consider the reported amount as correct and ensure compliance with its reserve obligations as described in Circular BCL 98/152.

2.2 Modification of content

• information on debts owed to credit institutions subject to the ESCB's required reserve system, to the ECB, as well as to NCBs members of the ESCB is to be provided. This information is to be allocated according to initial maturity and provided for demand liabilities, term liabilities, notice liabilities, issued debt securities, and issued money market securities by the reporting institutions. The ECB makes a complete list of credit institutions subject to the ESCB's required reserve system available to credit institutions (http:\www.ecb.int).
• breakdowns by instrument, counterparty economic sector, and initial maturity are introduced for debts owed to MFIs and non-residents of the euro area.
• a more detailed breakdown of the initial maturity of notice liabilities is introduced.
• in order to better capture the importance of netting between assets and liabilities carried out in the framework of the calculation of the reserve base and requirement, a new column titled "netted amounts" has been introduced.

3. Integration of ECB Requirements into BCL Statistical Collection

As the requested modifications do not fundamentally question the current architecture of tables S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet", it has been decided to maintain the existing tables while incorporating the aforementioned additional information. The detail of the breakdowns as well as the description of the items of the different tables are presented in the update of the "Collection of Instructions to Banks". As the ECB has established a "Compilation Guide on Money and Banking Statistics" (www.ecb.int) which is regularly updated when questions and/or problems arise, the BCL will adjust the collection as needed in light of the ECB's guide.

The tables will continue to be filled in in the currency of the capital, with conversions made at the rate of the day of the establishment of the table, in accordance with the rules detailed in the "Definitions and Preliminary Comments" (XVI.12.c. of the Collection of Instructions to Banks).

4. Quality of Data Transmitted

In accordance with existing instructions, the amounts of assets and liabilities are to be allocated according to the economic sector of the counterparty.
The initial results of the analysis of aggregated data from the financial center reveal substantial differences between interbank deposits and interbank claims in Luxembourg, whereas correct identification of counterparties should, however, lead, at the level of aggregated figures for the financial center, to equality between interbank deposits and interbank claims.

It is therefore reminded to the concerned institutions to scrupulously ensure the correct identification of their counterparties and to use for this purpose, in particular, the official list of credit institutions published by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier as well as the official list of MFIs made available to reporting institutions on the ECB's website.

We therefore consider it necessary to re-emphasize the importance of the quality of data transmitted to the BCL and the necessity to submit data to the verification rules detailed in the technical documentation before transmission. Only rigorous control performed at the time of data production will allow meeting both quality requirements and imposed deadlines. This point is all the more important as the data thus collected will be controlled by the ECB services before their aggregation with data from other Member States. Any significant error or negligence will have damaging repercussions on the reputation of the entire national banking community.

5. Implementation of the New Collection

The communication of this information is mandatory starting from the period ending June 2000.
The modified tables S 1.1 and S 1.2 for June 2000 are thus to be delivered by July 14, 2000 at the latest.

Insofar as the modified instructions will only enter into force starting from the period ending June 2000, all credit institutions must mandatorily submit the annex to Circular IML 98/152 starting from January 1, 2000 and until the submission of the modified tables S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet" respectively.

6. Compliance with Reporting Deadlines

6.1. Deadline for submission of monthly statistical reports.
The monthly statistical reports S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet" as well as the annex to Circular BCL 98/152 to be submitted by credit institutions, must reach the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg within 10 working days following the end of the month to which they relate. The data delivery schedule below lists the exact dates on which the three aforementioned tables are to be submitted to the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg during 2000.

Schedule for delivery of monthly statistical tables S 1.1, S 1.2 during 2000

Period	Day	Submission Date
February 2000	Tuesday	14 March 2000
March 2000	Friday	14 April 2000
April 2000	Monday	15 May 2000
May 2000	Friday	16 June 2000
June 2000	Friday	14 July 2000
July 2000	Monday	14 August 2000
August 2000	Thursday	14 September 2000
September 2000	Friday	13 October 2000
October 2000	Wednesday	15 November 2000
November 2000	Thursday	14 December 2000
December 2000	Monday	15 January 2001

The BCL will provide a regular revision of this schedule for the submission of monthly statistical reports and communicate it to the concerned credit institutions.

6.2. Compliance with delivery deadlines

It is reminded to the concerned credit institutions that the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg must transmit to the European Central Bank the monthly statistical reports within a period of 15 working days and the quarterly statistical reports within a period of 28 working days following the period to which they relate. It is therefore indispensable that institutions scrupulously respect the delivery deadlines defined in this Circular so that the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg can be able to respect its commitments within the framework of the ESCB.

In particular, for credit institutions subject to the ESCB's required reserve regime, it is indispensable that the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg has the aforementioned monthly statistical reports within the deadlines described in the table on the previous page in order to determine the amount of the required reserve to be maintained by each concerned institution.

Please accept, Ladies and Gentlemen, the assurance of our very distinguished sentiments.

BANQUE CENTRALE DU LUXEMBOURG
The Management

Serge KOLB Andrée BILLON Yves MERSCH
Annexes.