30.12.98 Official Journal of the European Communities L 356/7 REGULATION (EC) No 2819/98 OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK of 1 December 1998 concerning the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions (ECB/1998/16) THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2533/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the collection of statistical information by the European Central Bank ('), and in particular Articles 5(1) and 6(4) thereof, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the European Central Bank (%), and in particular to Article 6(4) thereof, O Whereas the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) requires, for the fulfilment of its tasks, the production of the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector, the principal purpose of which is to provide the European Central Bank (ECB) with a comprehensive statist- ical picture of monetary developments covering the aggregate financial assets and liabilities of monetary financial institutions (MFIs) in the participating Member States, which are viewed as one economic territory; Whereas the ECB shall, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Treaty)) and under the conditions laid down in the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Statute’), make regulations to the extent necessary to implement the tasks of the ESCB as defined in the Statute and in some cases laid down in the provisions of the Council referred to in Article 106(6) of the Treaty; Whereas Article 5.1 of the Statute requires the ECB, assisted by the national central banks (NCBs), to collect the necessary statistical information either from the competent national authorities or directly from economic agents in order to under- take the tasks of the ESCB; whereas Article 5.2 of the Statute stipulates that the NCBs shall carry out, to the extent possible, the tasks described in Article 5.1 L 318, 27. 11. 1998, p. 8. L 318, 27. 11. 1998, p. 1. sector ) Whereas NCBs are not prevented from collecting, from the actual reporting population, the statistical information necessary to fulfil the statistical requirements of the ECB as part of a broader stat- istical reporting framework which the NCBs estab- lish under their own responsibility in accordance with Community or national law or established practice and which serves other statistical purposes, as long as the fulfilment of the statistical require- ments set out in this Regulation is not jeopardised; whereas in order to foster transparency it is appro- priate, in these cases, to inform the reporting agents that data are collected to fulfil other statist- ical purposes; whereas, in specific cases, the ECB may rely on statistical information collected for such purposes to fulfil its requirements; Whereas Article 3 of the aforementioned Regula- tion (EC) No 2533/98 requires the ECB to specify the actual reporting population within the limits of the reference reporting population and entitles it to fully or partly exempt specific classes of reporting agents from its statistical reporting requirements; whereas Article 6(4) of the said Regulation provides that the ECB may adopt regulations specifying the conditions under which the right to verify or to carry out the compulsory collection of statistical information may be exercised; Whereas Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 empowers the ECB to adopt regulations or deci- sions in order to exempt institutions from minimum reserves, to specify modalities to exclude or deduct liabilities owed to any other institution from the reserve basis and to establish differing reserve ratios for specific categories of liabilities; whereas Article 6 of the said Regulation attributes to the ECB the right to collect from institutions the information necessary for the application of minimum reserves and the right to verify the ac- curacy and quality of the information which insti- tutions provide to demonstrate compliance with the minimum reserve obligation; whereas it is desirable, in order to reduce the overall reporting burden, for the statistical information regarding the monthly balance sheet to be used, in addition, for the regular calculation of the reserve base of the