Today, the National Bank Council has held its regular meeting, and reviewed and adopted the Report on the risks in the banking system in the third quarter of this year. The Council has determined that the banking system maintained its stability.

As emphasized in the meeting, the third quarter of this year, among other things, was marked by solid deposit growth, while the growth of loans to the household sector continued on the credit market. Solvency ratios of the banking system remained solid. According to data in the Report, at the end of September this year, the capital adequacy ratio of the banking system was 16.9%. Regarding the banks' liquidity, in this quarter it increased, whereby all indicators remain satisfactory.

In the third quarter, the share of non-performing loans in total loans to non-financial entities decreased by 0.5 percentage points and reduced to 5%. The amendments to the regulation on credit risk management made a partial contribution to improving the indicators for the level of materialization of the credit risk. As of the third quarter, the rates of return on average assets and average equity and reserves of the banking system were 1.5% and 13.5%, respectively. Compared to the same period last year, they are lower, but mainly as a reflection of the exhaustion of one-off effects from March 2018, which significantly increased the profit last year.

The Council also adopted the Plan of Activities of the National Bank for 2020. Besides the fulfillment of regular tasks for the following year, it also scheduled a number of projects that will contribute to improving the performance of the functions and efficient achievement of the strategic objectives of the central bank. Among other things, the Plan covers the already announced development of the National Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion as well as the National Strategy for application of financial technologies and support of the fintech sector development, activities related to analysis of the protection of financial services consumers, improvement of the National Bank setup in this area and project for improving the National Bank transparency and communication. Depending on the dynamics of the adoption of the new Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems, it also includes projects to enable changes or adoption of relevant bylaws. At the same time, in order to increase payment system security, stability and efficiency, it also includes a consultative process through the National Payment System Council to establish strategic directions for the development of multi-year strategy for development of the payment system of our country.

The Council also adopted the Annual Oversight Report and recommendations for the payment systems operations in 2018. In the Report, according to the established legal framework, the National Bank, through the oversight, assesses whether the structure and functionalities of the payment systems according to their significance are in line with the international standards and whether they ensure continuous, secure and stable payment system operations. During 2018, the payment systems in the country ensured a high degree of security and operational confidentiality, which is significant contribution to creating a favorable economic environment.

The Council also adopted the Work Program for 2020 and the Medium-Term Work Program for 2020-2022 of the Internal Audit Department, as well as the Annual Financial Plan, the Annual Investment Plan and the Annual Public Procurement Plan for 2020.