Direct accounts

Direct accounts are

Government securities accounts in the form of book entries. The opening of a direct account does not signify that the holder has a cash account at the Banco de España.
Account holders can be individuals or firms with residence in Spain.

Directly subscribing government securities at any branch of the Banco de España.
Transferring to the Banco de España accounts of book-entry public debt registered with a registered dealer (banks, savings banks, etc.).
Submitting a request to subscribe or transfer securities. Account holders must fill out a "signature form" and also provide the number of the current or savings account where payments for redemptions, interest, residual amounts, etc. are to be credited. Individual parties should indicate the number of their national identity card (DNI) or, if applicable, their tax identification number (NIF); firms, in addition to their tax identification number, must present the company's deed or founding charter, papers showing its registration in the Mercantile Registry, and, if applicable, the company's registration in the Official Gazette of the Spanish Mercantile Registry (BORME).
Direct accounts opened by individual parties can be individual, i.e. in the name of a single account holder, or joint, involving two or more account holders. To facilitate their management (new subscriptions, transfer orders, reinvestment), account holders can arrange with the Banco de España an availability authorisation in favour of one or more of the account holders, or even third parties.

Dividend rights on book-entry accounts - interest payments, redemptions, exchange of special debt.
Dividend rights are paid only by bank transfer to the account indicated by the account holder.
Reinvestment of book-entry public debt, at the account holder's request, when the redemption date coincides with new issues of debt (the calendar of Treasury bill issues is drawn up so that issues coincide with maturity dates).
The Banco de España advises account holders in advance when reinvestment possibilities arise.
Account holders are sent punctual information on the account's management, including receipts of transactions, reinvestment requests, notification of cash payments, tax information, etc.
Possibility of transferring book-entry debt before its maturity to another registered dealer or to the stockmarket system for its sale on the secondary market.

The Banco de España cannot carry out transactions involving the sale or purchase of government securities on behalf of direct account holders on the secondary debt market.
It cannot register transfers from one account holder to another derived from transactions carried out on the secondary market.

The Banco de España charges a fee, whose amount is set by the Executive Commission, for cash transfers.
On January 2nd 2005, this fee was set at 0.15% of the amount transferred, with a minimum charge of EUR 0.9 and a maximun charge of EUR 200.

Direct account holders who disagree with the actions undertaken by the Banco de España as a registered dealer can lodge a complaint to the Subdirección General de Deuda Pública (Public Debt Office of the Directorate General of the Treasury and Finance) or to the Servicio de Reclamaciones (Complaints Service) of the Banco de España itself.

The Treasury also provides an Internet-based securities transaction service . Access can be had through this service to all marketable Treasury securities.