7.6.2014

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 168/120

(1)

The Governing Council may decide from time to time to lower the deposit facility rate to below zero per cent.

(2)

The Governing Council has decided on certain ceilings to the remuneration of government deposits, which are specified in Guideline ECB/2014/9 (1).

(3)

Limitations on the remuneration of government deposits held by NCBs as fiscal agents pursuant to Article 21.2 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank must be specified to achieve the single monetary policy, in particular in order to provide incentives for government deposits to be placed in the market, which facilitates the Eurosystem's liquidity management and monetary policy implementation. In addition, the introduction of a ceiling on the remuneration of government deposits based on money market rates clarifies the criteria and facilitates the monitoring of the NCBs' compliance with the prohibition on monetary financing carried out by the ECB in accordance with Article 271(d) of the Treaty.

(4)

Guideline ECB/2012/27 (2) specifies the remuneration on the Payments Module accounts and their sub-accounts, which may interfere with the general principles on the remuneration of government deposits as approved by the Governing Council and the Governing Council decision to lower the deposit facility rate to below zero per cent referred to in recital 1.

(5)

Therefore Guideline ECB/2012/27 should be amended accordingly.

(6)

For the purposes of the limitation on the remuneration of government deposits, Guideline ECB/2012/27 should be considered as a lex specialis in relation to Guideline ECB/2014/9. In case of discrepancy with the general principles on the remuneration of government deposits as approved by the Governing Council, the former shall prevail. Hence, PM accounts and their sub-accounts shall necessarily be remunerated at zero per cent or at the deposit facility rate, whichever is lower, disregarding for these purposes any possibly higher remuneration available for governments under Guideline ECB/2014/9,

1.

in Article 2, the following definitions are added:

2.

in Annex II, the following definitions are added:

3.

in Annex II, Article 12(5) is replaced by the following:

‘�. PM accounts and their sub-accounts shall either be remunerated at zero per cent or the deposit facility rate, whichever is lower, unless they are used to hold required minimum reserves. In such a case, the calculation and payment of remuneration of holdings of minimum reserves shall be governed by Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank (3) and Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 of the European Central Bank of 12 September 2003 on the application of minimum reserves (ECB/2003/9) (4).