1. The actual reporting population shall consist of the euro area resident MFIs from the reference reporting population that are identified by the Governing Council as reporting agents pursuant to paragraph 2 or 3, as applicable, or MFIs identified as reporting agents pursuant to paragraph 4 on the basis of the criteria stated therein, and that are notified of their reporting obligations pursuant to paragraph 5 (hereinafter ‘reporting agents’).

2. Upon the date of entry into force of this Regulation, the Governing Council may decide that an MFI is a reporting agent if the MFI has total main balance sheet assets larger than 0,35 % of the total main balance sheet assets of all the euro area MFIs on the basis of the most recent data available to the ECB, i.e.:

(a) data with reference to the end of December of the calendar year preceding notification pursuant to paragraph 5; or

(b) if the data under (a) are not available, data with reference to the end of December of the previous year.