The Banco de España publishes the following lists of financial institutions, which are updated daily, in all the countries of the European Union:
The European Central Bank (ECB) also disseminates the lists of financial institutions and, for this purpose, provides files for direct download from the ECB website in several formats and with several classification criteria, which contain the complete list updated on a monthly basis (on the last or penultimate day of each month), or just the changes that have taken place during that month (joiners, leavers and changes in name or address).
Monetary Financial Institutions
Monetary financial institutions (MFIs) are credit institutions resident in the euro area, as defined in EU law, and all resident financial institutions whose business is to receive deposits and/or close substitutes for deposits from entities other than MFIs and, for their own account (at least in economic terms), to grant credits and/or make investments in securities. The latter group is basically made up of money market funds.
Lists of monetary financial institutions
Payment statistics relevant institutions
Payment statistics relevant institutions (PSRIs) are payment service providers (including electronic money issuers) and payment system operators. PSRIs offer payment services and/or are entitled to do so. They can be classified in different institutional sectors.
Payment service providers include the following entities:
- credit institutions meaning undertakings whose business is to receive deposits or other repayable funds from the public and to grant credits for their own account;electronic money institutions meaning legal persons authorised to issue electronic money, i.e.
- electronically, including magnetically, stored monetary value issued on receipt of funds and which can be used to make payments.
- post office giro institutions which are entitled under national law to provide payment services.
- the European Central Bank and national central banks (NCBs) when not acting in their capacity as monetary authority or other public authorities.
- Member States or their regional or local authorities when not acting in their capacity as public authorities.
- payment institutions meaning legal persons other than those listed above authorised to provide and execute payment services throughout the EU.
Lists of payment statistics relevant institutions
Non-monetary investment funds
Investment funds are collective investment undertakings, set up under EU or national law, that invest in financial and non-financial assets, within the meaning of the Regulation on the European system of national and regional accounts in the European Union (ESA 2010), to the extent that the objective is to invest capital raised from the public.
Included within the definition of investment funds are:
- undertakings whose units or shares are, at the request of the holders, repurchased or redeemed directly or indirectly out of the undertaking’s assets; and
- undertakings which have a fixed number of issued shares and whose shareholders have to buy or sell existing shares when entering or leaving the fund.
Not included in the definition of investment funds are:
- pension funds; and
- money market funds (which come under the MFIs).
The ECB releases a quarterly update on the list of investment funds (nine weeks after the end of the quarter to which the list refers).
Lists of non-monetary investment funds
Financial vehicle corporations
Securitisation special purpose vehicles or financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions are undertakings set up under national or EU law whose main activity is:
- to carry out securitisation transactions, their structure being designed to isolate the payment obligations of the undertaking from those of the originator or the insurance or reinsurance undertaking; and
- to issue debt securities, other debt instruments, shares in securitisation special purpose vehicles and/or financial derivatives and/or legally or economically own assets underlying the issue of financing instruments that are offered for sale to the public or sold on the basis of private placements.
The definition does not include monetary financial institutions (MFIs), investment funds, insurance or reinsurance undertakings or alternative investment funds that manage and/or sell alternative investment funds.
Securitisation means a transaction or scheme whereby an entity that is separate from the originator, or insurance or reinsurance undertaking, and is created for or serves the purpose of the transaction or scheme, issues financing instruments to investors, and one or more of the following takes place:
- an asset or pool of assets, or part thereof, is transferred to an entity that is separate from the originator and is created for or serves the purpose of the transaction or scheme, either by the transfer of legal title or beneficial interest of those assets from the originator or through sub-participation;
- the credit risk of an asset or pool of assets, or part thereof, is transferred through the use of credit derivatives, guarantees or any similar mechanism to the investors in the financing instruments issued by an entity that is separate from the originator and is created for or serves the purpose of the transaction or scheme;
- insurance risks are transferred from an insurance or reinsurance undertaking to a separate entity that is created for or serves the purpose of the transaction or scheme, whereby the entity fully funds its exposure to such risks through the issuance of financing instruments, and the repayment rights of the investors in those financing instruments are subordinated to the reinsurance obligations of the entity.
Since January 2010, the ECB releases on a quarterly basis updated information on the list of financial vehicle corporations
Lists of financial vehicle corporations
Insurance Corporation
For the purposes of this Regulation ‘insurance corporation’ and ‘IC’ (subsector 128 of the ESA 2010) mean a financial corporation or quasi-corporation that is principally engaged in financial intermediation as a consequence of the pooling of risks mainly in the form of direct insurance or reinsurance.
The following are included within the definition:
- a financial corporation or quasi-corporation that provides life insurance services, where policyholders make regular or one-off payments to the insurer in return for which the insurer guarantees to provide the policyholders with an agreed sum, or an annuity, at a given date or earlier
- a financial corporation or quasi-corporation that provides non-life insurance services to cover risks such as, for example, risks of accidents, sickness, fire or credit default
- a financial corporation or quasi-corporation that provides reinsurance services, where insurance is bought by the insurer to protect itself against an unexpectedly high number of claims or exceptionally large claims.
Lists of insurance corporations
Pension funds
«Pension fund (PF)» (subsector S.129 of the ESA 2010) means a financial corporation or quasi-corporation that is principally engaged in financial intermediation as the consequence of the pooling of social risks and needs of the insured persons (social insurance). A pension fund as a social insurance scheme provides income in retirement and may provide benefits for death and disability.
The following are not included within the definition:
- investment funds (IFs) as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1073/2013 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2013/38) (1);
- financial vehicle corporations engaged in securitisation transactions as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1075/2013 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2013/40) (2);
- monetary financial institutions (MFIs) as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1071/2013 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2013/33) (3);
- insurance corporations (ICs) as defined in Article 1 of Regulation (EU) No 1374/2014 of the European Central Bank (ECB/2014/50) (4);
- non-autonomous pension funds, which are not institutional units and remain part of the institutional unit that set them up; (f) social security funds as defined in paragraph 2.117 of the ESA 2010.
