Circular BCL 2000/162 of 13 November 2000 — Greece's Accession to the Economic and Monetary Union

Luxembourg, 13 November 2000
To all credit institutions
CIRCULAR BCL 2000/162
Greece's Accession to the Economic and Monetary Union

Dear Madam, Dear Sir,

At the European Council in Santa Maria da Feira (Portugal) on 19 June 2000, the Heads of State and Government of the European Union decided that, as of 1 January 2001, Greece would join the European Economic and Monetary Union as the 12th participating country.

The purpose of this circular is to describe the impact of Greece's accession to the zone on the preparation of monthly statistical tables as well as quarterly statistical tables.

1. Impact on BCL statistical collection

Greece's accession to the euro zone as of 1 January 2001 will have an impact not only on the preparation of monthly and quarterly statistical tables, but also on the calculation of mandatory reserves to which credit institutions are subject.

1.1 Impact on monthly statistical collection

The monthly statistical tables S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" and S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet" require an allocation of amounts by country of residence or registered office of the counterparty, i.e., the country in which the center of economic interests of the counterparty in question is located, distinguishing the following three allocations:

• Luxembourg (LU)
• Other member states of the Economic and Monetary Union (Other EMU MS)
• Rest of the world: i.e., countries that do not fall into the two categories mentioned above

As of 1 January 2001, the category "Other member states of the Economic and Monetary Union" (Other EMU MS) will also include Greece, which currently, and until 31 December 2000 inclusive, falls under the category "Rest of the world".

Furthermore, credit institutions are reminded that the inclusion of Greece under the category "Other member states of the Economic and Monetary Union" implies a more detailed sectoral breakdown of assets and liabilities towards counterparties residing in Greece. The details of this sectoral breakdown can be consulted in Part III – S 1.1 "Monthly Balance Sheet" (pp. 4 to 11), respectively Part III – S 1.2 "Simplified Monthly Balance Sheet" (pp. 4 to 10) of the Collection of Instructions to Banks.

Credit institutions are therefore invited to modify their reporting systems to include assets and liabilities towards a counterparty residing in Greece under the category "Other member states of the Economic and Monetary Union" while ensuring the appropriate sectoral breakdown is performed.

1.2 Impact on table S 2.5 "Quarterly Balance Sheet"

The quarterly statistical table S 2.5 "Quarterly Balance Sheet" requires an allocation of amounts by country of residence or registered office of the counterparty, identifying the country in question by a two-character ISO code.

In this context, credit institutions are also reminded that Greece's accession to the Economic and Monetary Union implies a much more detailed sectoral breakdown of assets and liabilities towards Greek residents. The details of this sectoral breakdown can be consulted in Part III – S 2.5 "Quarterly Balance Sheet" (pp. 3 to 11) of the Collection of Instructions to Banks.

1.3 Impact on table S 2.6 "Detail of Claims on Customers"

As table S 2.6 "Detail of Claims on Customers" only lists claims on Luxembourg residents as well as other countries in the euro zone, claims on Greek residents are currently not included in this table.

As of 1 January 2001, credit institutions must therefore include claims on Greek residents in table S 2.6 by including them in the category "Other member states of the Economic and Monetary Union". The details of the sectoral breakdown applicable to these claims can be consulted in Part III – S 2.6 "Quarterly Balance Sheet" (pp. 3 to 6) of the Collection of Instructions to Banks.

1.4 Impact on the calculation of mandatory reserves

Since exposures to the European Central Bank, national central banks that are members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), and credit institutions that are subject to the ESCB mandatory reserve system are excluded from the reserve base, the volume of exposures included in the reserve base must be reduced by exposures to Greek credit institutions that are subject to the ESCB mandatory reserve system as of the reference period of January 2001.

For the maintenance period from 24 December 2000 to 23 January 2001 and that from 24 January 2001 to 23 February 2001, exposures to Greek credit institutions subject to the ESCB mandatory reserve system may already be deducted from the reserve base of reporting institutions. Luxembourg credit institutions wishing to take advantage of this possibility must report the table in the annex to the Central Bank of Luxembourg for the months of November and December 2000, considering Greek institutions as already subject to the ESCB reserve system. In this case, the amount of the mandatory reserve reported on the table in the annex will prevail over the amount reported on the monthly statistical tables S 1.1 and S 1.2.

Reporting credit institutions are reminded that the monthly statistical tables S 1.1 and S 1.2 as well as the quarterly tables S 2.5 and S 2.6 must obviously be filled out in such a way as to consider Greece as not being included in the Economic and Monetary Union until 31 December 2000 inclusive.

2. Quality of transmitted data

It is once again reminded to the institutions concerned to carefully 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 monetary financial institutions made available to reporting institutions on the website of the European Central Bank.

We therefore consider it necessary to once again emphasize the importance of the quality of data transmitted to the BCL and the need to submit data before transmission to the verification rules detailed in the technical documentation. Only rigorous control performed at the time of data production will allow meeting both quality requirements and deadlines. This point is all the more important as the data thus collected will be controlled by the ECB services before 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.

3. Entry into force of new provisions

The new classification of assets and liabilities towards Greek residents is to be performed for the first time when preparing monthly statistical tables relating to the period of January 2001 as well as when preparing quarterly statistical tables relating to the period of March 2001.

The annexed table relating to the calculation of mandatory reserves relates to the periods of November and December 2000.

Credit institutions therefore have three months to adapt their reporting systems to the new requirements both at the level of country breakdown and the sectoral breakdown of assets and liabilities towards Greek residents.

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

CENTRAL BANK OF LUXEMBOURG
The Management

Serge KOLB Andrée BILLON Yves MERSCH

Annex.

Annex. Information to be provided to the Central Bank of Luxembourg for the reduction of the reserve base for the periods of November and December 2000

Rubric	Currency	Country	Economic Sector	Initial Maturity
				<= 2 years > 2 years Unallocated
Demand liabilities	All currencies	All countries	All sectors
	All currencies	EMU MS + Greece	Credit institutions subject to ESCB reserve, ECB and NCB
Notice liabilities	All currencies	All countries	All sectors
	All currencies	EMU MS + Greece	Credit institutions subject to ESCB reserve, ECB and NCB
Term liabilities	All currencies	All countries	All sectors
	All currencies	EMU MS + Greece	Credit institutions subject to ESCB reserve, ECB and NCB
Firm sale and repurchase operations	All currencies	All countries	All sectors
	All currencies	EMU MS + Greece	Credit institutions subject to ESCB reserve, ECB and NCB
Issued debt securities	All currencies	All countries	All sectors
	All currencies	EMU MS + Greece	Credit institutions subject to ESCB reserve, ECB and NCB
Money market securities	All currencies	All countries	All sectors
	All currencies	EMU MS + Greece	Credit institutions subject to ESCB reserve, ECB and NCB

EMU MS: Member States of the Economic and Monetary Union; Credit institutions: Credit institutions; ECB: European Central Bank; NCB: National Central Banks of the ESCB.
The wording of the rows and columns of this table corresponds to those used for tables S 1.1 and S 1.2 to be submitted monthly to the Central Bank of Luxembourg.

The credit institutions concerned can therefore rely on the definitions of the Collection of Instructions to Banks to prepare this table.