Its Directorate General Statistics has the competency to request national data from the Member States in the area of monetary, banking and financial markets statistics.

The MoU confirms the prime responsibility of the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat) for General Economic Statistics comprising among others the harmonised index of consumer prices, data on output, production, labour markets, external trade and statistics linked to the excessive deficit procedure, and the prime responsibility of the ECB for Money, Banking and Financial Markets Statistics, comprising among others balance sheets of financial institutions, interest rates, prices of financial assets and securities statistics.

It may not be feasible to continue to gather correct BoP and investment statistics data by using bank transaction based systems.

Whereas in 2003 some 40% of the EU-25 Member States still relied mainly on bank settlements for BoP compilation, this share had fallen to 12% by the end of 2006 and is likely to drop even further (see Annex).

Statistical reliability of the survey From a statistical point of view, both the number of bank branches visited and the number of transfers carried out were considered to provide a sound statistical basis2).

These include: - discussions with its two consultative groups (the Payments Systems Technical Development Group and the Payment Systems Users Liaison Group) on the ways in which the payment systems can best be prepared for the introduction of the Ecu - rapid progress, in the framework of an existing Task Force of government experts, on harmonising procedures for reporting cross- border credit transfers for the purposes of compiling balance of payments statistics (the Commission wants transactions below 10,000 Ecus exempted) - continuing discussions with Member State legal experts, central bank representatives and the EMI on harmonising t ...[+++]he legal framework for cross-border payments, in particular settlement finality for credit transfers (a Directive on settlement finality could be proposed in 1995) - maintaining contact with interested parties on the establishment of linkages between automatic clearing houses (ACHs, which process payments transfers at the national level) to assess how best to contribute to progress in this area - consulting with the Commission's two consultative groups on the results of an independent study to be completed in June 1995 on the information given to customers when using payment cards for cross-border payments (so-called face-to-face payments), and assessing the appropriate follow-up measures - launching a study on the regulatory implications for the EU of the use of pre-paid payment cards, particularly as regards the stability of the banking system, consumer protection and the promotion of interoperable cross-border banking services.