In December 2008, the ECB Governing Council passed a Regulation which will require statistical data to be collected from Financial Vehicle Corporations (FVCs), with the first reporting period referring to Q4 2009. Information on this Regulation, reporting schemes and general information for reporting agents may be found on this page.
The specific legislation outlining the requirements for FVC statistics in the euro-area are an ECB Regulation, which applies to reporting agents, and a Guideline, which applies to National Central Banks in the euro area:
Financial Vehicle Corporations are defined in Article 1 of the Regulation. In summary, an FVC:
· is set up under national or Community law – for example, in Ireland, this is commonly done under Section 110 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, as amended by Section 48 of the Finance Act 2003; and
· intends to carry out, or carries out, one or more securitisation transactions and is insulated from the risk of bankruptcy or any other default of the originator; and
· issues, or intends to issue, securities, securitisation fund units, other debt instruments and/or financial derivatives and/or legally or economically owns, or may own, assets underlying the issue of securities, securitisation fund units, other debt instruments and/or financial derivatives that are offered for sale to the public or sold on the basis of private placements.
The Regulation stipulates that FVCs must notify the appropriate National Central Bank of their existence by end-March 2009 (Article 9.1), or within one week if they take up business after that date (Article 9.2). FVCs must provide the National Central Bank with the information required for the list of FVCs (Article 3.1), as outlined in the Guideline ECB/2008/31. The FVC's reporting agent (the institution which will submit the returnn on the FVCs behalf) must also be identified.
Registering an FVC with the Central Bank must be done using the "Addition ot the List of Financial Behicle Corporations" from below. This may be returned by email, fax or post. If a number of FVCs are to be registered at once, a spreadsheet may be provided for this purpose, on request.
Forms are also provided for the purpose of notifying the Central Bank of a change to an FVC's reporting agent, and for removal from the List of FVCs. Please see the explanatory notes for instructions on completing the forms.
· Registration of Financial Vehicle Corporations - Explanatory notes and guidance on definition
· Notification Form: Addition to the List of Financial Vehicle Corporations
· Notification Form: Change of FVC Reporting Agent
· Notification Form: Removal from the List of Financial Vehicle Corporations
· Financial Vehicle Corporation Quarterly Return (FVC1)
· FVC1 Notes on Compilation (Draft)
Data cannot be uploaded as an Excel file, the file above is for reference only. Collection of data shall be through a web-based Online Reporting System by close of business of the 19th working day following the (end-quarter) reference date.
The data can be entered manually on the online forms, or uploaded as an XML file. Data must pass the FVC1 Validation Checks, which will be performed by the Online Reporting System before the return can be transmitted to the Central Bank.
Instructions for file upload are published in Reporting FVC Returns to the Central Bank in XML , and technical details about the required file format are defined by the XML Schema .
The FVC1 return fulfils the data requirements of the Regulation, as outlined in Tables 1 and 2 of Annex I, and must be completed for each FVC resident in Ireland.
The deadlines for 2010 are as follows:
| Reference period | Reporting deadline (T+19) |
| Q4 2009* | 28 January 2010 |
| Q1 2010 | 29 April 2010 |
| Q2 2010 | 27 July 2010 |
| Q3 2010 | 28 October 2010 |
| Q4 2010 | 28 January 2011 |
*Note that financial transactions and write-downs/write-offs data – Tables 2a, 2b and the transactions sections of Tables 3a and 3b – are not required for the first reporting period (Article 9.3).
Balance sheet data supplied on the FVC reporting return will be used for statistical purposes only. National-level aggregates of balance sheets - and not individual FVC data - will be transmitted to the ECB (with the exception of the ISIN codes of issued securities).
Under Article 5.1(b) of the Regulation, a National Central Bank may allow reduced reporting from some vehicles, as long as the sum of total assets/liabilities of the vehicles using the derogation is less than 5 per cent of the population's total assets/liabilities. The Cental Bank will allow reduced reporting from smaller FVCs - those with total assets/liabilities of under €180 million. FVCs with balance sheets under this threshold will supply only total assets/liabilities and the list of securities with ISIN codes issued on a quarterly basis (Tables 4 and 5 of the FVC1 return). If the reduced reporting requirement does not apply, then the FVC will report using Tables 1 to 4 of the return.
· Requirements for FVCs subject to full reporting
· Requirements for FVCs subject to reduced reporting (in cases where the size derogation applies)
This derogation does not apply to vehicles which are beneath the threshold (e.g. during a ramping up or warehousing phase), but will exceed it when they have fully taken up business. The derogation for reduced reporting requirements is at the Central Bank's discretion. In some cases full reporting may be necessary for some vehicles below the threshold (e.g. those set up by euro-area banks to securitise mortgages).
The appropriateness of this threshold will be monitored, and is subject to annual review.
A part of the balance sheet data may not be required in cases where securitised loans have been originated and are serviced by a euro-area bank. These cells are highlighted in the FVC1 spreadsheet. See the document on the derogation on securitised loans for more information.
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