ECB adjusts its capital key

21 December 2023

• Five-yearly adjustment based on population and GDP data from European Commission
• 17 national central banks to have higher share in ECB’s capital, nine to have lower share, one to keep same share
• No change in system of rotating voting rights

The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) today adopted legal acts on the regular five-yearly adjustment to the ECB’s capital key and the contributions allocated to the national central banks (NCBs). The last adjustment to the ECB’s capital key took place on 1 February 2020 following the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the consequent withdrawal of the Bank of England from the European System of Central Banks. The ECB’s new capital subscription key will enter into force on 1 January 2024.

The shares of the NCBs in the ECB’s capital are weighted according to the share of their respective Member States in the total population and gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union, in equal measure.* The relevant population and GDP data are provided by the European Commission. NCBs will transfer capital shares among themselves to the extent necessary to ensure that the distribution of the shares corresponds to the adjusted key.

Following the adjustment, 17 central banks will have a higher share in the ECB’s capital than before and nine will have a lower share, while for one central bank the rounded capital key remains the same. The new distribution of the NCBs’ shares is set out in the table below. The total amount of the subscribed capital of the ECB remains unchanged at €10,825,007,069.61. 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.

The system under which NCB governors take turns in holding voting rights on the Governing Council provides that the governors of the euro area NCBs are allocated to two groups according to the size of their Member States’ financial sector and GDP, as referred to above. These data need to be recalculated whenever the five-yearly capital key adjustment takes place. On the basis of the new calculations, the allocation of governors into groups as of 1 January 2024 remains unchanged.

Distribution of the ECB’s capital as of 1 January 2024

(Numbers may not add up owing to rounding)

For media queries, please contact William Lelieveldt, tel.: +49 69 1344 7316.

Notes

• *Pursuant to Article 29.1 of the Protocol on the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank.