Today 41 members of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) in the European Parliament addressed a joint question to the ECB with the aim to increase transparency of the ECB’s purchases of securities.
For the first time, a majority of MEPs turn to the central bank with a common question. This cross-party initiative was coordinated by the Catalan liberal MEP, Tremosa.
MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented:
„More transparency regarding the ECB’s purchases of securities is overdue. The public has a right to know which companies benefit directly from the expansive monetary policy of the ECB. The central banks exert market power when they purchase about 30% of all covered bonds. It is good that the German Central Bank and other national central banks name the companies whose securities they bought. However, that is not good enough. A common monetary policy require common transparency rules. The ECB can no longer leave it to the national central banks to define transparency standards at their own discretion. Similarly, the Eurosystem should specify the amount of securities purchased paper by paper. Here the German Central Bank can also do. better when it comes to transparency.
Monetary policy must also take account of social and ecological criteria in its securities purchases („ESG“). The efforts of many investors in the divestment and climate-friendly investments may be counteracted by the ECB.“
The communication can be found here:
“Subject: Transparency of the CSPP Programme
Dear President Draghi,
Since June 2016, the European Central Bank has purchased more than 75bn EUR of bonds from private corporations under its CSPP programme.
Since its implementation, the programme spurred a certain level of concerns[1], since it could be perceived as a disguised subsidy to certain companies[2].
Thus, regarding the CSPP program we would like to know if:
- Following the excellent practice of the Bundesbank, is the ECB considering to ask all participating national central banks to disclose the full names (and not just ISIN codes) of the issuing companies whose bonds have been purchased under the CSPP programme? Will the ECB aggregate all the data into one single, user-friendly table to improve its transparency standards?
- Will the ECB and the national central banks involved in the programme disclose the detailed amount of the Eurosystem’s holding for each bond being purchased, thereby allowing more accurate scrutiny against possible sectorial bias of the programme?
- Is the ECB going to disclose greater details on this programme’s operating guidelines, in order to explain to citizens how the corporate bonds are being selected?”
Ramon Tremosa (ALDE); Andreas Schwab (EPP); Pervenche Beres (S&D); Emmanuel Maurel (S&D); Sirpa Pietikainen (EPP); Costas Mavrides (S&D); Werner Langen (EPP); Olle Ludwigsson (S&D); Peter Simon (S&D); Lara Comi (EPP); Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA); Roberts Zile (ECR); Markus Ferber (EPP); Sophie In’t Velt (ALDE); Jeppe Kofod (S&D); Miguel Urbán (GUE/NGL); Sander Loones (ECR); Michel Reimon (Greens/EFA); Cora Van Nieuwenhuizen (ALDE); Matt Carthy (GUE/NGL); Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA); Tibor Szanyi (S&D); Paul Tang (S&D); Alfred Sant (S&D); Fabio de Masi (GUE/NGL); Thierry Cournillet (ALDE); Paloma Lopez-Bermejo (GUE/NGL); Jonás Fernadez (S&D); Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA); Esther De Lange (EPP); Molly Scott-Cato (Greens/EFA); Udo Bullman (S&D); Petr Jezek (ALDE); Marisa Matias (GUE/NGL); Bernd Lucke (ECR); Eva Kaili (S&D); Michael Theurer (ALDE); Brian Hayes (EPP); Nils Torvalds (ALDE); Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA); Fulvio Martusciello (EPP)
[1] http://www.elindependiente.com/economia/2016/11/10/telefonica-iberdrola-y-gas-natural-suman-el-56-de-los-bonos-que-compra-el-bce/