Council Directive of 8 December 1986 on the annual accounts and consolidated accounts of banks and other financial institutions (86/635/EEC)

Article 39 U.K.

1. Assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currency shall be translated at the spot rate of exchange ruling on the balance sheet date. The Member States my, however, require or permit assets held as financial fixed assets and tangible and intangible assets, not covered or not specifically covered in either the spot or forward markets, to be translated at the rates ruling on the dates of their acquisition.

2. Uncompleted forward and spot exchange transactions shall be translated at the spot rates of exchange ruling on the balance sheet date.

The Member States may, however, require forward transactions to be translated at the forward rate ruling on the balance sheet date.

3. Without prejudice to Article 29 (3), the differences between the book values of the assets, liabilities and forward transactions and the amounts produced by translation in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be shown in the profit and loss account. The Member States may, however, require or permit differences produced by translation in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 to be included, in whole or in part, in reserves not available for distribution, where they arise on assets held as financial fixed assets, on tangible and intangible assets and on any transactions undertaken to cover those assets.

4. The Member States may provide that positive translation differences arising out of forward transactions, assets or liabilities not covered or not specifically covered by other forward transactions, or by assets or liabilities shall not be shown in the profit and loss account.

5. If a method specified in Article 59 of Directive 78/660/EEC is used, the Member States may provide that any translation differences shall be transferred, in whole or in part, directly to reserves. Positive and negative translation differences transferred to reserves shall be shown separately in the balance sheet or in the notes on the accounts.

6. The Member States may require or permit translation differences arising on consolidation out of the retranslation of an affiliated undertaking's capital and reserves or the share of a participating interest's capital and reserves at the beginning of the accounting period to be included, in whole or in part, in consolidated reserves, together with the translation differences arising on the translation of any transactions undertaken to cover that capital and those reserves.

7. The Member States may require or permit the income and expenditure of affiliated undertakings and participating interests to be translated on consolidation at the average rates of exchange ruling during the accounting period.