ECB payment statistics — the derogation nobody claims
Payment statistics is the reporting obligation most payment firms meet without ever reading the instrument that creates it. Regulation (EU) No 1409/2013, as amended, sets the European content; national central banks set the plumbing. Two of its provisions are worth knowing in their own right — a derogation regime that many firms qualify for and never claim, and a rarely cited defence against sanctions where the ECB’s own list of reporting agents is wrong.
1. Who reports, and to whom
Article 3 requires the actual reporting population to report the statistical information to the national central bank of the member state in which the reporting agent is resident — either directly, or via the relevant national competent authority under local cooperation arrangements. The content is specified in Annex III, read with the clarifications and definitions in Annexes I and II, and against the minimum standards in Annex IV.
Article 3(2) then hands the operational design to the national central bank: NCBs define and implement the reporting arrangements in accordance with national characteristics, while ensuring those arrangements deliver what the Regulation requires and allow accurate checking against the Annex IV minimum standards for transmission, accuracy, conceptual compliance and revisions.
2. The derogation regime
Article 4 is the provision worth reading if you are a smaller reporting agent. NCBs are to be guided by the principle of proportionality when granting derogations, and may grant them to:
| Limb | Reporting agent | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| (a) | Payment institutions | Where they fulfil the conditions in Article 32(1) and (2) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 |
| (b) | Electronic money institutions | Where they fulfil the conditions in Article 9(1) and (2) of Directive 2009/110/EC |
| (c) | Other payment service providers | Where they fulfil both sets of conditions |
And then the sentence that decides most cases: NCBs may grant these derogations regardless of whether the reporting agents have been waived or exempted from prudential requirements under the national law transposing those directives. In other words, you do not have to be a registered small payment institution to meet the conditions of the small-institution regime for this purpose — the test is the conditions, not the status.
Article 4(3) then constrains when an NCB may actually grant them: among the alternatives, where the total value contributed by all payment service providers that could benefit from the derogation does not exceed 5% at national level for each of the listed payment services. So the derogation is available where the excluded firms are collectively immaterial to the national statistics — which is why it is granted market by market rather than firm by firm, and why the question to ask your NCB is what its current derogation policy is.
3. The list, and the good-faith defence
Article 5 requires the ECB’s Executive Board to establish and maintain a list of payment service providers, including electronic money issuers, and payment system operators subject to the Regulation, built on existing national lists of supervised entities where available. NCBs and the ECB make the list and its updates accessible to the reporting agents concerned, including electronically.
The list is for information only. But Article 5(3) adds a protection that is unusual in EU statistical law and worth knowing: where the latest accessible electronic version of the list is incorrect, the ECB shall not impose sanctions on any entity that did not properly fulfil its reporting requirements to the extent that it relied in good faith on the incorrect list.
That is not a licence to ignore the obligation — reliance must be in good faith, and the list is expressly informational. It is, however, a reason to check your own entry, keep a dated record of what the list said when you checked, and raise a correction rather than assume someone else will.
4. Timeliness, and what it means downstream
Article 6 governs transmission from NCBs to the ECB on a quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis, with quarterly information under Table 9 of Annex III transmitted by close of business on the last working day of the second month following the end of the reference period.
Those are the ECB’s deadlines, not yours — but they set the outer bound for the national ones. An NCB has to receive, validate and aggregate your submission before that date, which is why national deadlines cluster several weeks earlier and why a late national submission has a consequence beyond your own file.
Facts: a payment institution operating in three member states assumes its home-state submission covers the group.
What the rule says: Article 3 ties reporting to the NCB of the member state in which the reporting agent is resident. Separate resident entities report to their own NCBs; branches are treated according to the arrangements the relevant NCB implements under Article 3(2).
What the practitioner does: builds one data model to the Annex III specification and treats each national submission as a rendering of it, then confirms per market whether an Article 4 derogation is available and, if so, applies for it in writing rather than assuming it.
FAQ
Can a small payment institution be exempted?
An NCB may grant a derogation where the firm fulfils the conditions in Article 32(1) and (2) of PSD2 — and expressly regardless of whether it has been waived or exempted from prudential requirements nationally. Whether the NCB grants it depends on the Article 4(3) national-materiality test.
Why does the return look different in each country?
Because Article 3(2) leaves NCBs to define and implement reporting arrangements in accordance with national characteristics, while delivering the same European content.
What if the ECB list of reporting agents is wrong?
The list is for information only, but where the latest accessible electronic version is incorrect the ECB is not to impose sanctions on an entity that relied on it in good faith.
Related: Payment statistics in Spain · PSD2 fraud reporting · What is supervisory reporting
