Article 3 of Decision (EU) 2015/298 (ECB/2014/57) is replaced by the following:
‘By way of derogation from Article 2, the Governing Council shall decide before the end of the financial year whether all or part of the ECB’s income referred to in that Article should be retained to the extent necessary to ensure that the amount of the distributed income does not exceed the ECB’s net profit for that year. Any such decision shall be taken where, on the basis of a reasoned estimate prepared by the Executive Board, the Governing Council expects that the ECB will have an overall annual loss or will make an annual net profit that is less than the estimated amount of its income referred to in Article 2. The Governing Council may decide before the end of the financial year to transfer all or part of the ECB’s income referred to in that Article to a provision for financial risks.’