To perform European System of Central Banks (ESCB) tasks and to monitor the financial markets and financial activities within the euro area, the European Central Bank (ECB), assisted by the national central banks (NCBs), needs to collect high quality statistical information on a security-by-security basis regarding securities held by euro area institutional sectors, and securities issued by euro area residents and held by non-euro area institutional sectors.

To contribute to the smooth conduct of policies pursued by the competent authorities relating to the prudential supervision of credit institutions, the stability of the financial system and the analysis of the monetary policy transmission mechanism, the ECB needs to collect security-by-security information from banking groups on those groups’ holdings of securities.

The purpose of the data to be collected is to provide the ECB with comprehensive statistical information on the exposure of economic sectors and individual banking groups in the euro area Member States to specific classes of securities and on the links between the economic sectors of holders and issuers of securities, and on the market for securities issued by euro area residents. The importance of having accurate information on the exposure of economic sectors and of banking groups to specific classes of securities at a very disaggregated level became evident during the financial crisis, as risks to financial stability due to contagion mechanisms at the level of individual financial institutions, generated by specific classes of securities, could not be properly identified from aggregated data. Timely information on holdings of securities at the level of individual securities will also allow the ECB to monitor the transmission of risks from the financial markets to the real economy.

In addition, this statistical information will support the ECB in analysing financial market developments, and in monitoring the changes in the securities portfolios of economic sectors and the links between financial intermediaries and non-financial investors.

Given the interconnection between monetary policy and the stability of the financial system, the collection of statistical information on a security-by-security basis concerning securities holdings positions and financial transactions, and for the derivation of transactions from positions, is also necessary to satisfy regular and ad hoc analytical needs to support the ECB in carrying out monetary and financial analysis, and for the contribution by the ESCB to the stability of the financial system. This statistical information will allow information on securities held by institutional sectors to be combined with information on the individual issuers across the world, thus providing an important tool to monitor the buildup and evolution of financial imbalances.

It is also necessary to enable the ECB to provide analytical and statistical support to the European Systemic Risk Board in accordance with Council Regulation (EU) No 1096/2010 of 17 November 2010 conferring specific tasks upon the European Central Bank concerning the functioning of the European Systemic Risk Board8.

For this reason, the Governing Council of the ECB should identify reporting banking groups for the purpose of the data collection under this Regulation taking into account the size of each group’s consolidated balance sheet in comparison to the consolidated balance sheet assets of all European Union banking groups, the significance of the group’s activities in a particular segment of the banking business and the relevance of the group for the stability and functioning of the financial system in the euro area and/or individual Member States.

The standards for the protection and use of confidential statistical information as laid down in Article 8 of Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 should apply.

The reporting requirements under this Regulation, including derogations therefrom, are without prejudice to the reporting requirements set out in other ECB legal acts and instruments, which may, at least partly, also cover security-by-security reporting of statistical information on holdings of securities.

It is necessary to set up a procedure to carry out technical amendments to the annexes to this Regulation in an effective manner, provided they neither change the underlying conceptual framework nor affect the reporting burden on reporting agents in Member States. This procedure needs to allow the views of the ESCB Statistics Committee to be taken into account,