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  • PRESS RELEASE

ECB adopts new capital key

3 December 2018

  • Five-yearly adjustment based on population and GDP data from European Commission
  • 16 national central banks to have higher share, 12 lower share
  • No change in system of rotating voting rights

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) adopted legal acts on the regular five-yearly adjustment to its capital key and the contributions paid by the national central banks (NCBs) of the European Union. The new key for subscription to the ECB’s capital will enter into force on 1 January 2019.

The shares of the NCBs in the ECB’s capital are weighted according to the share of the respective Member States in the total population and gross domestic product of the European Union (EU), in equal measure.*

The weightings are based on data provided by the European Commission. NCBs will transfer capital shares among themselves to the extent necessary to ensure that the distribution of the shares corresponds to the adjusted key.

Following the latest review, 16 central banks will have a higher share in the ECB’s capital than before and 12 central banks will have a lower share. The new distribution of the NCBs’ shares is set out in the table below. The total amount of the subscribed capital of the ECB remains unchanged at €10,825,007,069.61. The relevant ECB decisions are available on the ECB’s website and will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in due course. The General Council of the ECB contributed to the decision-making process, in line with the Statute of the ESCB.

The system under which NCB Governors take turns in holding voting rights on the Governing Council provides that the Governors of the euro area NCBs are allocated to two groups according to the size of their Member States’ financial sector and gross domestic product, as referred to above. These data need to be recalculated whenever the five-yearly capital key adjustment takes place. On the basis of the new calculations, the allocation of Governors into groups as of 1 January 2019 remains unchanged.

Distribution of the ECB’s capital as of 1 January 2019

Key for subscription to the ECB’s capital (%) until 31 December 2018

Key for subscription to the ECB’s capital (%) from 1 January 2019

Subscribed share of capital (EUR) from 1 January 2019

Paid-up capital (EUR) from 1 January 2019

Nationale Bank van België/ Banque Nationale de Belgique

2.4778

2.5280

273,656,178.72

273,656,178.72

Deutsche Bundesbank

17.9973

18.3670

1,988,229,048.48

1,988,229,048.48

Eesti Pank

0.1928

0.1968

21,303,613.91

21,303,613.91

Central Bank of Ireland

1.1607

1.1754

127,237,133.10

127,237,133.10

Bank of Greece

2.0332

1.7292

187,186,022.25

187,186,022.25

Banco de España

8.8409

8.3391

902,708,164.54

902,708,164.54

Banque de France

14.1792

14.2061

1,537,811,329.32

1,537,811,329.32

Banca d’Italia

12.3108

11.8023

1,277,599,809.38

1,277,599,809.38

Central Bank of Cyprus

0.1513

0.1503

16,269,985.63

16,269,985.63

Latvijas Banka

0.2821

0.2731

29,563,094.31

29,563,094.31

Lietuvos bankas

0.4132

0.4059

43,938,703.70

43,938,703.70

Banque centrale du Luxembourg

0.2030

0.2270

24,572,766.05

24,572,766.05

Central Bank of Malta

0.0648

0.0732

7,923,905.17

7,923,905.17

De Nederlandsche Bank

4.0035

4.0677

440,328,812.57

440,328,812.57

Oesterreichische Nationalbank

1.9631

2.0325

220,018,268.69

220,018,268.69

Banco de Portugal

1.7434

1.6367

177,172,890.71

177,172,890.71

Banka Slovenije

0.3455

0.3361

36,382,848.76

36,382,848.76

Národná banka Slovenska

0.7725

0.8004

86,643,356.59

86,643,356.59

Suomen Pankki - Finlands Bank

1.2564

1.2708

137,564,189.84

137,564,189.84

Subtotal for the group of euro area NCBs

70.3915

69.6176

7,536,110,121.69

7,536,110,121.69

Българска народна банка (Bulgarian National Bank)

0.8590

0.8511

92,131,635.17

3,454,936.32

Česká národní banka

1.6075

1.6172

175,062,014.33

6,564,825.54

Danmarks Nationalbank

1.4873

1.4986

162,223,555.95

6,083,383.35

Hrvatska narodna banka

0.6023

0.5673

61,410,265.11

2,302,884.94

Magyar Nemzeti Bank

1.3798

1.3348

144,492,194.37

5,418,457.29

Narodowy Bank Polski

5.1230

5.2068

563,636,468.10

21,136,367.55

Banca Naţională a României

2.6024

2.4470

264,887,922.99

9,933,297.11

Sveriges Riksbank

2.2729

2.5222

273,028,328.31

10,238,562.31

Bank of England

13.6743

14.3374

1,552,024,563.60

58,200,921.14

Subtotal for the group of non-euro area NCBs

29.6085

30.3824

3,288,896,947.92

123,333,635.55

Total

100.0000

100.0000

10,825,007,069.61

7,659,443,757.27

Numbers may not add up owing to rounding.

For media queries, please contact Peter Ehrlich, tel.: +49 69 1344 8320.

Notes:

*Article 29.1 of the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank sets out how the capital key is weighted.

Annex:

Comparison of capital key, Eurosystem key and banknote allocation key

CONTACT

European Central Bank

Directorate General Communications

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