Legal Basis and Data Protection for the Collection of Monetary and Financial Statistics

Subsection 2 (8) of Eesti Pank Act states that in order to perform its functions, Eesti Pank also has the right to collect monetary and financial statistics besides balance of payments statistics on the basis of and pursuant to the procedure provided for in the Official Statistics Act.

In addition to Eesti Pank Act, the collection of monetary and financial statistics is regulated by the Official Statistics Act, with subsection 4 (8) stipulating that besides the Statistical Office, Eesti Pank is the other main agency conducting official statistical surveys. All provisions of the Official Statistics Act related to conducting statistical surveys, the obligation to submit data, data protection, data dissemination, and liability of the parties extend to Eesti Pank and its respondents.

Considering the functions of Eesti Pank, the Governor of Eesti Pank has issued several Decrees in accordance with the abovementioned Acts, which form the basis for the collection of data necessary for the compilation of financial statistics. In addition to the data collected on the basis of the Official Statistics Act, Eesti Pank has the right to obtain any data from the Financial Supervision Authority which is necessary for the performance of its functions (subsection 2 (5) of Eesti Pank Act).

Eesti Pank uses the data collected to analyse monetary policy and assess developments and risks in the financial sector and in Estonian foreign economic relations. The data forms the input for the compilation of internationally comparable monetary and financial statistics as well as the balance of payments. Since Eesti Pank considers it very important that the indicators compiled on the basis of the information collected would be made available to the public as well, a large proportion of the total financial statistics is published on the Eesti Pank web page.

Section 11¹ of the Official Statistics Act stipulates the liability incurred for violating of the requirements of the Official Statistics Act. Failure to submit data collected through official statistical surveys or the submission of distorted data is punishable by a fine of up to 100 fine units for a natural person and a fine of up to 30,000 kroons for a legal person.

Eesti Pank guarantees full organisational, IT and physical protection of all submitted individual data in accordance with established legal requirements. The data will be used for statistical purposes only and published in an aggregated form without characteristics enabling identification.