Regulation (EC) No 958/2007 of the European Central Bank of 27 July 2007 concerning statistics on the assets and liabilities of investment funds (ECB/2007/8)

• Published date: 11 August 2007
• Subject Matter: European Central Bank (ECB),Economic and monetary policy,Information and verification
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Union, L 211, 11 August 2007

11.8.2007 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 211/8

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REGULATION (EC) No 958/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

of 27 July 2007

concerning statistics on the assets and liabilities of investment funds

(ECB/2007/8)

THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK,

Having regard to the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, and in particular Article 5 thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank (1), and in particular Articles 5(1) and 6(4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 provides in Article 2(1) that, for the fulfilment of its statistical reporting requirements, the European Central Bank (ECB), assisted by the national central banks (NCBs), has the right to collect statistical information within the limits of the reference reporting population and of what is necessary to carry out the tasks of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It follows from Article 2(2)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 that investment funds (IFs) form part of the reference reporting population for the purposes of fulfilling the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements, inter alia, in the field of money and banking statistics. Furthermore, Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 requires the ECB to specify the actual reporting population within the limits of the reference reporting population and entitles it fully or partly to exempt specific classes of reporting agents from its statistical reporting requirements.

(2) In order to fulfil its tasks and monitor financial activities other than those undertaken by monetary financial institutions (MFIs), the ESCB requires high-quality statistical information on the business of IFs. The principal purpose of these data is to provide the ECB with a comprehensive statistical picture of the IF sector in the participating Member States, which are viewed as one economic territory.

(3) To limit the reporting burden, NCBs are allowed to collect the necessary information on IFs from the actual reporting population as part of a broader statistical reporting framework which serves other statistical purposes, provided that the fulfilment of the ECB’s statistical requirements is not jeopardised. In order to foster transparency, in such cases it is appropriate to inform the reporting agents that data are collected to fulfil other statistical purposes.

(4) Having data available on financial transactions facilitates a more in-depth analysis for monetary policy and other purposes. Data on financial transactions, as well as data on stocks, are also used to compile other statistics, in particular the euro area financial accounts.

(5) Although regulations adopted under Article 34.1 of the Statute do not confer any rights or impose any obligations on non-participating Member States, Article 5 of the Statute applies to all Member States, whether or not they have adopted the euro. Recital 17 to Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 makes clear that Article 5 of the Statute, together with Article 10 (ex Article 5) of the Treaty, implies an obligation to design and implement at national level all the measures that the non-participating Member States consider appropriate to collect the statistical information needed to fulfil the ECB’s statistical reporting requirements and make timely preparations in the field of statistics for becoming participating Member States.

(6) Although this Regulation is primarily addressed to IFs, complete information on holders of bearer shares issued by IFs may not be directly available from IFs, and it is therefore necessary to include other entities in the reporting population.

(7) The ECB’s sanctions regime laid down in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 will apply to IFs.

(8) By 2012 at the latest, the Governing Council will assess whether to only allow Member States whose investment fund sector, in terms of total assets, accounts for less than a minimum share of overall assets under management in the euro area, to use the aggregated reporting approach established under this Regulation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation:

— ‘IF’ means a collective investment undertaking that: (a) invests in financial and non-financial assets, within the meaning of Annex II, to the extent that its objective is investing capital raised from the public; and (b) is constituted pursuant to Community or national law under: (i) contract law (as a common fund managed by management companies); (ii) trust law (as a unit trust); (iii) company law (as an investment company); or (iv) any other similar mechanism. The following are included within the definition of IF: (a) those undertakings whose units or shares are, at the request of the holders, repurchased or redeemed directly or indirectly out of the undertaking’s assets; and (b) those undertakings which have a fixed number of issued shares and whose shareholders have to buy or sell existing shares when entering or leaving the fund. The following are not included in the definition of IF: (a) pension funds within the meaning of Article 2(2)(a) of and Annex B to Regulation (EC) No 2533/98; and (b) money market funds within the meaning of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2423/2001 of the European Central Bank of 22 November 2001 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (ECB/2001/13) (2). For the purposes of the definition of IF, ‘public’ shall encompass retail, professional and institutional investors;

— ‘participating Member State’ means a Member State that has adopted the euro;

— ‘non-participating Member State’ means a Member State that has not adopted the euro;

— ‘reporting agent’ means a reporting agent within the meaning of Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98;

— ‘resident’ means resident within the meaning of Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 2533/98. For the purposes of this Regulation, and in the absence of any significant physical dimension to a legal entity, its residence shall be determined by the economic territory under whose laws the entity is incorporated. If the entity is not incorporated, legal domicile shall be used as a criterion, namely the country whose legal system governs the creation and continued existence of the entity;

— ‘MFI’ means a monetary financial institution within the meaning of paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2423/2001 (ECB/2001/13);

— ‘OFI’ means other financial intermediaries except insurance corporations and pension funds, within the meaning of Article 2(2)(a) of and Annex B to Regulation (EC) No 2533/98;

— ‘relevant NCB’ means the NCB of the participating Member State in which the IF in question is resident.

Article 2

Actual reporting population

1. The actual reporting population shall consist of the IFs resident in the territory of the participating Member States. The IF itself or, in the case of IFs that do not have legal personality under their national law, the persons legally entitled to represent them shall be responsible for reporting the statistical information required under this Regulation.

2. Without prejudice to paragraph 1, for the purpose of collecting information on the holders of bearer shares issued by IFs (paragraph 3 in Part 2 of Annex I), the actual reporting population shall include MFIs and those OFIs that are not IFs. The NCBs may grant derogations to these entities provided that the required statistical information is collected from other available sources in accordance with paragraph 3 in Part 2 of Annex I. The NCBs shall check the fulfilment of this condition in good time in order to grant or withdraw, if necessary, any derogation with effect from the start of each year, in agreement with the ECB. For the purposes of this Regulation, the NCBs may establish and maintain a list of reporting OFIs that are not IFs, in accordance with the principles laid down in paragraph 3 in Part 2 of Annex I.

Article 3

Derogations

1. The NCBs may grant derogations to the smallest IFs in terms of total assets, provided that the IFs that contribute to the quarterly aggregated balance sheet account for at least 95 % of the total of IFs’ assets in terms of stocks, in each participating Member State. The NCBs shall check the fulfilment of this condition in good time in order to grant or withdraw, if necessary, any derogation with effect from the start of each calendar year. The IFs to which such derogations apply shall only report, on a quarterly basis: end-of-quarter stock data on IF shares/units issued; and the corresponding quarterly revaluation adjustments or transactions, if applicable.

2. Derogations may be granted to IFs that are subject to national accounting rules which allow the valuation of their assets less frequently than quarterly. The IF categories to which NCBs shall have the discretion to grant derogations shall be decided by the Governing Council. The IFs to which such derogations apply shall be subject to the requirements set out in Article 6 of this Regulation at a frequency consistent with their accounting obligations regarding the timing of valuation of their assets.

3. The IFs may choose not to make use of the derogations and to fulfil the full reporting requirements specified in Article 6 instead. If an IF makes such a choice, it shall obtain the relevant NCB’s consent prior to any change in its use of these derogations.

Article 4

List of IFs for...