27/11/2017 (Agence Europe) – In an opinion dated 23 November, the legal services of the Council ruled that by deciding on automatic rules applicable to all Eurozone banks, the European Central Bank (ECB) has exceeded the limits of its mandate, according to a European source. This legal opinion echoes that returned by the Parliament's legal services in early November (see EUROPE 11901) and comes on top of the mass of criticism levelled since the publication, in October, of the ECB's draft addendum to its guidelines on the provisioning of non-performing bank loans (see EUROPE 11876). The opinion, which was requested by the Council's Financial Services Committee, is reported already to have been sent to the member states, the same source told us. With political pressure mounting on the monetary institution, the text remains subject to public consultation to run until 8 December. (MF)