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1. A bank to which a Preservation Order is addressed shall implement it without delay following receipt of the Order or, where the law of the Member State of enforcement so provides, of a corresponding instruction to implement the Order.

2. To implement the Preservation Order, the bank shall, subject to the provisions of Article 31, preserve the amount specified in the Order either:

(a) by ensuring that that amount is not transferred or withdrawn from the account or accounts indicated in the Order or identified pursuant to paragraph 4; or (b) where national law so provides, by transferring that amount to an account dedicated for preservation purposes. The final amount preserved may be subject to the settlement of transactions which are already pending at the moment when the Order or a corresponding instruction is received by the bank. However, such pending transactions may only be taken into account when they are settled before the bank issues the declaration pursuant to Article 25 by the time-limits set out in Article 25(1).

3. Notwithstanding point (a) of paragraph 2, the bank shall be authorised, at the request of the debtor, to release funds preserved and to transfer those funds to the account of the creditor indicated in the Order for the purposes of paying the creditor’s claim, if all the following conditions are met:

(a) such authorisation of the bank is specifically indicated in the Order in accordance with point (j) of Article 19(2);

(b) the law of the Member State of enforcement allows for such release and transfer; and (c) there are no competing Orders with regard to the account concerned.

4. Where the Preservation Order does not specify the number or numbers of the account or accounts of the debtor but provides only the name and other details regarding the debtor, the bank or other entity responsible for enforcing the Order shall identify the account or accounts held by the debtor with the bank indicated in the Order. If, on the basis of the information provided in the Order, it is not possible for the bank or other entity to identify with certainty an account of the debtor, the bank shall:

(a) where, in accordance with point (f) of Article 19(2), it is indicated in the Order that the number or numbers of the account or accounts to be preserved was or were obtained by means of a request pursuant to Article 14, obtain that number or those numbers from the information authority of the Member State of enforcement; and (b) in all other cases, not implement the Order.

5. Any funds held in the account or accounts referred to in point (a) of paragraph 2 which exceed the amount specified in the Preservation Order shall remain unaffected by the implementation of the Order.

6. Where, at the time of the implementation of the Preservation Order, the funds held in the account or accounts referred to in point (a) of paragraph 2 are insufficient to preserve the full amount specified in the Order, the Order shall be implemented only in the amount available in the account or accounts.

7. Where the Preservation Order covers several accounts held by the debtor with the same bank and those accounts contain funds that exceed the amount specified in the Order, the Order shall be implemented in the following order of priority:

(a) savings accounts in the sole name of the debtor;

(b) current accounts in the sole name of the debtor;

(c) savings accounts in joint names, subject to Article 30;

(d) current accounts in joint names, subject to Article 30.

8. Where the currency of the funds held in the account or accounts referred to in point (a) of paragraph 2 is not the same as that in which the Preservation Order was issued, the bank shall convert the amount specified in the Order into the currency of the funds by reference to the foreign exchange reference rate of the European Central Bank or the exchange rate of the central bank of the Member State of enforcement for sale of that currency on the day and at the time of the implementation of the Order, and shall preserve the corresponding amount in the currency of the funds.