Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 October 2023
151. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Finance the legislation, Irish or EU, that must change before Irish credit unions are able to avail of the same ECB deposit interest rates as commercial retail banks. [42609/23]
View answerI thank the Deputy for his question. As this is a matter of Regulation, officials in my Department have liaised with the Central Bank who have provided the following information:
The relevant legislation is the Governing Council of the ECB - Guideline ECB/2014/60, as amended. In order to be an eligible counterparty for Eurosystem monetary policy operations (including access to the Eurosystem’s deposit facility), an institution must meet the eligibility criteria in the relevant legal act adopted by this Guideline.
The relevant provisions have been implemented in Ireland by the Central Bank's Documentation on Monetary Policy Instruments and Procedures (the 'MPIPs'). An applying institution must therefore satisfy all the eligibility criteria set out in Articles 55 and 55a of the MPIPs. The process of becoming a monetary policy counterparty involves an assessment by the Central Bank as to whether an applicant institution meets these criteria. Any such assessment will be conducted in line with harmonised Eurosystem procedures.
In a previous application by a credit union, The Central Bank determined that the regulatory and supervisory framework for credit unions in Ireland was not comparable to the standards required of the Capital Requirements Regulation/ Capital Requirements Directive. This distinction has been by design, with credit unions in Ireland benefiting from a bespoke, tailored and proportionate supervisory regime. Accordingly, the Central Bank has determined that the supervisory regime for Irish credit unions does not satisfy the eligibility criterion in Article 55(b)(iii) of the MPIPs, as they do not consider that the Basel III standards have been implemented into the supervisory regime of credit unions in Ireland in a manner that satisfies this criterion.
It is important to note that the Central Bank does not have discretion in respect of the application of the Eurosystem’s monetary policy eligible counterparties framework (which is applied in a uniform manner by the Eurosystem), nor to grant access to Eurosystem monetary policy operations, including access to the Eurosystem’s deposit facility, outside of this framework.
