Article 3

1. Member States shall require credit institutions subject to this Directive to obtain authorization before commencing their activities. They shall lay down the requirements for such authorization subject to paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 and notify them to both the Commission and the Advisory Committee. 2. Without prejudice to other conditions of general application laid down by national laws, the competent authorities shall grant authorization only when the following conditions are complied with: - the credit institution must possess separate own funds, the credit institution must possess adequate minimum own funds, there shall be at least two persons who effectively direct the business of the credit institution. Moreover, the authorities concerned shall not grant authorization if the persons referred to in the third indent of the first subparagraph are not of sufficiently good repute or lack sufficient experience to perform such duties. 3. (a) The provisions referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 may not require the application for authorization to be examined in terms of the economic needs of the market. Where the laws, regulations or administrative provisions of a Member State provide, at the time of notification of the present Directive, that the economic needs of the market shall be a condition of authorization and where technical or structural difficulties in its banking system do not allow it to give up the criterion within the period laid down in Article 14 (1), the State in question may continue to apply the criterion for a period of seven years from notification. It shall notify its decision and the reasons therefor to the Commission within six months of notification. Within six years of the notification of this Directive the Commission shall submit to the Council, after consulting the Advisory Committee, a report on the application of the criterion of economic need. If appropriate, the Commission shall submit to the Council proposals to terminate the application of that criterion. The period referred to in subparagraph (b) shall be extended for one further period of five years, unless, in the meantime, the Council, acting unanimously on proposals from the Commission, adopts a Decision to terminate the application of that criterion. The criterion of economic need shall be applied only on the basis of general predetermined criteria, published and notified to both the Commission and the Advisory Committee and aimed at promoting: - security of savings, higher productivity in the banking system greater uniformity of competition between the various banking networks, a broader range of banking services in relation to population and economic activity. Specification of the above objectives shall be determined within the Advisory Committee, which shall begin its work as from its initial meetings. 4. Member States shall also require applications for authorization to be accompanied by a programme of operations setting out inter alia the types of business envisaged and the structural organization of the institution. 5. The Advisory Committee shall examine the content given by the competent authorities to requirements listed in paragraph 2, any other requirements which the Member States apply and the information which must be included in the programme of operations, and shall, where appropriate, make suggestions to the Commission with a view to a more detailed coordination. 6. Reasons shall be given whenever an authorization is refused and the applicant shall be notified thereof within six months of receipt of the application or, should the latter be incomplete, within six months of the applicant's sending the information required for the decision. A decision shall, in any case, be taken within 12 months of the receipt of the application. 7. Every authorization shall be notified to the Commission. Each credit institution shall be entered in a list which the Commission shall publish in the Official Journal of the European Communities and shall keep up to date.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-01 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.