Statistical Notices to Reporting Banks 1999/05
Statistical Notices should be received by all those responsible for the completion of Bank of England returns. To add names to the circulation list please contact us on 020 7601 3644.
- Classification of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects (effective immediately)
- Data Protection Act 1998 (clarification)
- Guidance for submitting forms for scanning via the fax (update)
- Textual amendment to Form DQ (effective immediately)
- Form CL internal validations amendments (effective immediately)
- Form B1 cross-form validations (clarification)
- Forms BT/QX cross-form validations amendments (effective immediately)
- Eligible Bank List (update)
- Contents page for the Yellow Folder (update)
1. Classification of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects (effective immediately)
The accounting guidance given by HM Treasury does not define public or private sector organisations for the purpose of classifying PFI projects. The guidance focuses instead on establishing which organisation is the beneficial (or majority beneficial) owner of the property and is exposed to the associated risks. Reporting institutions should investigate each project to establish this point for the purpose of economic sector classification (e.g. for Form BE). But please note that the industrial classification (for Forms AD and AL) should continue to be made according to activity, regardless of who owns or operates the company or property. (For example, if a non-financial company borrows to build a hospital which the Government then leases for ten years, and at the end of the period the building belongs to that company, then the lending should be classified to the economic sector "NFCs", and to the industrial sector "construction").
2. Data Protection Act 1998 (clarification)
In order that we explicitly comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 we have added a final paragraph to section 2 of the General Notes and Definitions section of the Banking Statistics Folder. To retain the correct formatting we have reissued pages 1, 2, 3 and 4 of these notes.
| Amended o/a Stats Notice 1998/05 |
2 Information powers of the Bank; offences; restrictions
on onwards disclosure of information The Bank of England Act 1998 gives the Bank powers to obtain information, in Section 17 (for the Bank’s monetary policy function) and Schedule 2 (for calculation of cash ratio deposits); the Bank of England (Information Powers) Order 1998, which came into force on 1 June 1998, specifies the types of financial affairs about which the Bank may require information under Section 17 of the Act. With effect from the Bank’s Statistical Notice 1998/05 these powers have been exercised so as to require the provision of the information collected on the forms in this folder, where applicable. Sections 38 and 39 of the Act define the offences of failing to supply the information "without reasonable excuse", and of knowingly or recklessly supplying information which is "false or misleading in a material particular", and the penalties. Given the good reporting record of most banks, we do not envisage that it will be necessary to invoke these sections of the Act; and we would intend to issue written warnings to poor reporters, before taking any legal action. Schedule 7 of the Act restricts the onwards disclosure
of information relating to the business or affairs of
any person obtained by the Bank under these powers, unless
(a) the information has been made available to the public
from other sources or (b) is summarised or collected in
a form so that no information on a particular person can
be ascertained from it or (c) the Bank has gained the
consent of the supplier of the information and, if different,
the person to whom the information relates. The Bank may
nonetheless disclose the restricted information to enable
or assist it to discharge its functions as a monetary
authority or as a supervisor of payment systems. The Bank
may also disclose the information for certain other purposes
specified in Schedule 7; for example it may disclose information
to other authorities listed in paragraph 3 of Schedule
7 (e.g. the Financial Services Authority and the Office
for National Statistics) to enable or assist those authorities
to discharge certain specified functions. In particular,
the Bank will in the ordinary course pass all the information
collected on report forms or relating thereto to the FSA. |
| Amended o/a Stats Notice 1999/05 | (b) The Data Protection Act 1998 The personal details of the contact person(s) at your institution are held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. We may share your information with other parts of the Bank and the Financial Services Authority. Individuals are entitled to see a copy of the information held about them in our records and to request the Bank to correct any inaccuracies. |
3. Guidance for submitting forms for scanning via the fax (update)
In the ‘Guidelines for Completing Forms for Scanning’, which were circulated with Statistical Notice 1998/08 (dated November 1998), we stated that faxed returns will be accepted as long as they are correctly aligned on the paper. However, experience over the previous six months has shown that submission by fax can be particularly time consuming especially in the case of the larger forms. We therefore request that reporting institutions do not submit the Forms B1, C1, DQ or any of the "C" Forms, by fax. Banks are strongly encouraged to send paper returns of these forms to reach us in advance of the deadlines, but we understand that on occasion the use of the fax is the only means of avoiding returns arriving late. In this case, we ask reporting institutions to telephone us and inform us of the problems. Assuming this does not become a regular occurrence, we may grant a deadline extension of one day to cover the delay arising from the posting of the return.
4. Textual amendment to Form DQ (effective immediately)
A textual mistake occurred when Form DQ was re-formatted into Excel. The second half of page 9 was labelled "FRAS"; this should have been "OTHER LIABILITIES". The second half of page 11 was labelled "FRAS"; this should have been "OTHER ASSETS".
Form DQ has been amended on the Bank of England’s Internet site, and will be corrected on paper copies next time the return is reissued. There is no requirement for banks using the Excel version to download the amended version (unless you wish to do so), as both versions are acceptable for scanning.
5. Form CL internal validations amendments (effective immediately)
The validation numbered 4 has been amended.
6. Form B1 cross-form validations (clarification)
A number of cross-form validations were previously included within pages 1 and 2 of paper versions of the Form B1. These validations, numbered 1 to 3 against Forms BT/QX, and 6 against Form CC, have now been added to the definitions folder. The Excel version of Form B1 did not contain these validations and its format is therefore unaffected.
7. Forms BT/QX cross-form validations amendments (effective immediately)
An updated version of page 15 of the form BT checks can be downloaded here; the three checks numbered 203 to 205 have been deleted. This follows the removal, in a previous Statistical Notice, of the corresponding QX/BT cross-form validations.
8. Eligible Bank List (update)
A revised list of institutions whose acceptances are eligible for discount at the Bank of England can be found here
9. Contents page for the Yellow Folder (update)
Updated here
Bank of England
Monetary & Financial Statistics Division
20 July, 1999
