Reporting agents must fulfil the following minimum standards to meet the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) statistical reporting requirements.
reporting must be timely and within the deadlines set by the relevant NCB;
statistical reports must take their form and format from the technical reporting requirements set by the relevant NCB;
the reporting agent must provide the details of one or more contact persons to the relevant NCB;
the technical specifications for data transmission to the relevant NCBs must be followed.
statistical information must be correct: all linear constraints must be fulfilled (e.g. subtotals must add up to totals), and data must be consistent across all frequencies;
reporting agents must be able to provide information on the developments implied by the transmitted data;
statistical information must be complete and must not contain continuous and structural gaps; existing gaps must be acknowledged, explained to the relevant NCB and, where applicable, bridged as soon as possible;
reporting agents must follow the rounding policy set by the relevant NCB for the technical transmission of the data.
statistical information must comply with the definitions and classifications contained in this Regulation;
in the event of deviations from these definitions and classifications reporting agents must monitor and quantify the difference between the measure used and the measure contained in this Regulation on a regular basis;
reporting agents must be able to explain breaks in the transmitted data compared with the previous periods’ figures.
The revisions policy and procedures set by the ECB and the relevant NCB must be followed. Revisions deviating from regular revisions must be accompanied by explanatory notes.