Adjustments to the ECB’s capital subscription key and the contribution paid by Slovakia

The European Central Bank (ECB) today announces adjustments to its capital key and the contributions paid by the national central banks (NCBs).

Pursuant to Article 29 of the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank, the shares of the NCBs in the ECB’s capital key are weighted according to the shares of the respective Member States in the total population and the gross domestic product of the European Union (EU), in equal measure, as notified to the ECB by the European Commission. The weightings are adjusted every five years or whenever a country joins the EU. Accordingly, on 1 January 2009 the ECB’s capital key is being adjusted on account of the five-yearly update, on the basis of data provided by the European Commission. In such event, NCBs transfer among themselves capital shares to the extent necessary to ensure that the distribution of the shares corresponds to the adjusted key. The new distribution of the NCBs’ shares in the ECB’s capital key is set out in the table attached to this press release. The total amount of the subscribed capital of the ECB remains unchanged at EUR 5,760,652,402.58.

Furthermore, today, 1 January 2009, Slovakia has adopted the euro and Národná banka Slovenska has joined the Eurosystem. In accordance with Article 49 of the Statute, whereby the Eurosystem NCBs are required to pay up their subscribed capital in full, Národná banka Slovenska has paid up the remainder of its contribution to the capital of the ECB. In the case of the 11 non-euro area NCBs, the requirement is to pay up a minimal percentage of their subscribed capital, currently 7%, as a contribution to the operational costs of the ECB.

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.

*Due to rounding, totals may not correspond to the sum of all figures shown.