In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting financial market conditions, the Eurosystem is enacting substantial financial support measures that also benefit the Luxembourg financial community. Measures include attractive EUR funding facilities, USD backstop funding and substantial collateral easing measures. For details of these measures, please refer to the ECB’s website (https://www.ecb.europa.eu/mopo/decisions/html/index.en.html).
All these measures intend to ease strains in global funding markets and to help mitigating the effects of such strains on the supply of vital credit to households and businesses facing severe disruptions.
The Banque centrale du Luxembourg’s (BCL) responsibility is to ensure the seamless implementation of all these measures in Luxembourg. In the context of the ongoing crisis, the BCL, whose Executive Board meets on a daily basis, has taken the necessary measures to ensure business continuity in the areas of monetary policy operations, collateral management, payment systems, liquidity supervision, and the distribution of banknotes and coins.
In order to maintain efficient communication with the banking community in these challenging times, the BCL request all banks interested in taking part in its operations for the first time, and which may not be familiar with the BCL’s monetary policy operations, to provide BCL with advance notification of such interest. This expression of interest together with an explanation of the motivations and all other for this purpose relevant information must be addressed to the Governor of the BCL (via mail to direction_generale@bcl.lu, copy to polmon@bcl.lu). It should be followed by a formal letter signed by two members of the Executive Board of the interested institution. Such early and comprehensive information will greatly facilitate the administrative and technical preparations in these times of heightened market and operational stress.
In order to maintain efficient communication with the banking community in these challenging times, the BCL remind all banks about the general group email of the payment systems department, i.e. paysys@bcl.lu and the help desk line (+352) 4774-4199.
The BCL request banks which need to execute a payment order by fax to transmit such payment order only by e-mail (paysys@bcl.lu) and not by fax for the time being.
The e-mail must include a pdf. following the same format and rules as applicable for the fax (clause 9.1 annex 8 of the terms and conditions of the BCL).
