The predominant part of Austria’s foreign currency reserves will be retained and invested by the OeNB. Transactions by national central banks involving such foreign currency reserves will be governed by guidelines in order to prevent any possible undesirable impact on the monetary and foreign exchange policies of the euro area. Very large foreign currency reserve transactions will even require the approval of the ECB.
BIS Review 44/1998  -9-  As these two examples clearly illustrate, the operative framework of the ESCB as prepared by the EMI heavily relied on the national central banks’ existing resources and merely confers the decision-making powers on the ECB. 4.