Opinion of the European Central Bank of 15 November 2007 at the request of the Slovenian Office for money laundering prevention on a draft decree implementing Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds (CON/2007/36)

OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 15 November 2007 at the request of the Slovenian Office for money laundering prevention on a draft decree implementing Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds (CON/2007/36) Introduction and legal basis

On 24 October 2007, the European Central Bank (ECB) received a request from the Slovenian Office for money laundering prevention (hereinafter the ‘Office’) for an opinion on a draft decree implementing Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 November 2006 on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds (hereinafter the ‘draft decree’). The ECB’s competence to deliver an opinion is based on Article 105(4) of the Treaty establishing the European Community and the third indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions , as the draft decree relates to Banka Slovenije. In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opinion.

1. Purpose of the draft decree

1.1 The purpose of the draft decree is to implement Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006. The draft decree: (i) establishes a list of offences that relate to the infringement of individual obligations under Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006; (ii) specifies the authorities responsible for monitoring implementation and taking decisions in offence proceedings; and (iii) provides for an exemption from Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006. 1.2 Pursuant to Article 2 of the draft decree, Banka Slovenije is responsible for monitoring implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 and taking decisions with regard to the offences 2 3 set out in the draft decree , with the exception of point 2 of Article 3(1) of the draft decree which

falls within the scope of the Office’s competence. By virtue of this provision, Banka Slovenije’s powers are expanded to include new tasks related to the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing (in addition to those already contained in the Law on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing ) and in particular as regards the imposition of sanctions in offence proceedings. In this context, the draft decree extends the range of entities subject to Banka Slovenije’s supervision. Under the Law on payment transactions , only legal persons may act as payment service providers and are therefore subject to Banka Slovenije’s supervision. Since natural persons are covered by the definition of payment service provider in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006, they would also fall within the scope of the Banka Slovenije’s supervision.

2. General observations

2.1 The ECB would like to reiterate its commitment to contributing to the adoption, implementation and execution of measures preventing the use of the financial system for terrorist activities, as expressed in its public statement of 1 October 2001. 2.2 Without prejudice to the Governing Council’s powers under Article 14.4 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, the ECB considers that Bank Slovenije’s new tasks referred to in paragraph 1.2 would not interfere with the objectives and tasks of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). Nevertheless, these new tasks would be performed on the responsibility and liability of Banka Slovenije, and would not be regarded as being part of the ESCB’s functions. 2.3 The ECB understands that the underlying reason for allocating the tasks referred to in paragraph 1.2 to Banka Slovenije is linked to its supervision of payment service providers. The ECB is of the opinion that monitoring implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006, as provided for under the draft decree, could further enhance the supervisory function. 2.4 Banka Slovenije will have to commit additional resources, both human and financial, to carrying out the tasks referred to in paragraph 1.2. In this context, the ECB has consistently emphasised that ‘Member States may not put their NCBs in a position where they do not have sufficient financial resources to carry out their ESCB- or Eurosystem-related tasks, as applicable’ . Accordingly, the ECB expects that, when granting additional tasks to Banka Slovenije, due care will be taken to

ensure that it has sufficient financial and personnel resources, both in terms of quantity and quality, to carry out all its tasks, and in particular that its capacity to carry out its Eurosystem-related tasks will not be affected .

This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.

Done at Frankfurt am Main, 15 November 2007.

[signed]

The President of the ECB

Jean-Claude TRICHET