1.Financial modalities for credit institutions for the 2002 cash changeover 2. The exchange of national banknotes of other participating Member States at the national central banks

The Governing Council of the ECB has agreed on general principles of the framework of the 2002 cash changeover. The decisions take into account the major role that credit institutions will play in making the 2002 cash changeover a smooth operation. They relate to the following matters:

There is to be a debiting model suitable to reflect additional cash holdings of credit institutions resulting from the 2002 cash changeover. According to this model, euro cash frontloaded to credit institutions is to be debited, taking into account the provisional settlement dates of the first, fourth and fifth main refinancing operations in 2002 respectively. Thus one-third of the frontloaded euro cash will be debited on 2 January 2002, 23 January 2002 and 30 January 2002.

The Governing Council has decided to extend the period for the exchange and repatriation of national banknotes - beyond the originally envisaged date of 31 December 2001- to 31 March 2002. This implies that each participating national central bank will offer the possibility of exchanging legal tender banknotes of other participating Member States against euro banknotes and coins at the official conversion rate at one location at least in every country. For further information, please also refer to the press release issued by the ECB on 3 November 1998, which is available on the ECB's website.