Regular session of the National Bank Council
Today, the National Bank Council held a regular session and discussed and adopted the Decision on amending the Decision on the manner and the terms under which residents that are not authorized banks may open and hold accounts abroad. The amendments allow citizens and companies to open and hold accounts with all foreign electronic payment transactions services that will provide their services for the residents from our country. They will be able to use these accounts solely for commercial purposes or for purchasing and/or selling goods and services electronically. Whether and when citizens and companies will be able to open an account with a particular electronic service and what services they will be able to use (whether only for payment or also for collection), each of the services decides separately, thus making their business decision on the basis of their own analyses and assessments.
When discussing the Decision, at the session, the Council among other things noted that liberalization in relation to opening and holding user accounts in electronic payment transaction services, can bring more benefits for our economy in the following period. At the same time, the Council emphasized that the adopted Decision is one of the steps of the National Bank for greater promotion and support of electronic trade and effort for using the advantages from financial technologies, i.e. creating conditions for the goods and services offered by our residents, through electronic trade, to be more available on the international market.
In the discussion at the session, the Council also emphasized the possible risks for the residents who will use these services, primarily in terms of the quality and security of services.
At today’s session, the Council also discussed and adopted the Decision on amending the Decision on the methodology for calculation of the annual percentage rate of total costs, which should provide greater protection of borrowers of consumer loans. More specifically, according to the adopted Decision, consumer loan lenders, in the PRTC calculation, will be required to include all categories of costs paid by the borrower and for which the Law on consumer protection in case of consumer loan agreements does not provide not to be covered by this calculation. The amendment to the regulation is expected to provide even greater transparency in the formation of the prices of consumer loans and that borrowers will be provided on time with more detailed information on total costs they will have on an annual level, which also protects them as consumers.
The Council also discussed and adopted the Decision on amending the Decision on the methodology for determining the capital adequacy. The amendment expands the banks’ obligation for determining capital requirements for counterparty risk and settlement/delivery risk. More specifically, in addition to the obligation for covering these risks for the trading book positions, according to the adopted amendment, from 1 January the next year, banks will be required to allocate capital for these risks and for the banking book positions. These are risks that are present in all positions in financial instruments, and that are expected to gain greater importance for banks with the development of the capital market and increasing banks' investments in various types of financial instruments. This amendment enables further harmonization with the Basel Capital Standards, as well as with the relevant European regulation.
At the session, the Council also discussed other matters within its jurisdiction.
