Skopje, 21 December 2021

The National Bank is a true knowledge hub and hence, an important link in the institutional system, both in the country and in the region. This is of great importance for the challenges ahead of us that come along with the digitalization, new banking trends and the support of green finance. This was pointed out at the meeting between the National Bank Governor, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska and Jana Repanšek, Director of the Center for Excellence in Finance (CEF) in Slovenia.

CEF underlined that our central bank is an example of true knowledge hub for many institutions in the region. It was noted that the National Bank continuously invests in building high quality human capital, as well as in improving knowledge and skills of employees, which is a prerequisite for the institutions and countries to grow in a sustainable, smart and inclusive way.

The National Bank, besides generating knowledge, also transfers knowledge and expertise to other institutions in the country and abroad. In that regard, the CEF Director expressed gratitude to the National Bank for being a partner institution that contributes to achieving the CEF goals in accordance with the Strategic Plan. Additionally, the CEF Director underlined that the National Bank is an institution fully committed to transparency and communication, which also contributes to educational benefits for the public.

Governor Angelovska Bezhoska expressed gratitude for the successful cooperation and support from CEF as an institution that significantly contributes to capacity building in the region. She pointed out that the National Bank will continue to cooperate with the CEF in the field of professional training of employees, benefiting from the experience of the central banks that are members of CEF as well as through further targeted training in the challenging areas, in particular micro-supervision, continuous compliance of banking regulations with the European standards and climate risk assessment and impact on the financial sector.

CEF is an educational institution that provides training in the field of public finance in Southeast Europe and one of the major partners of the National Bank in the exchange of knowledge and professional experience in the last twenty years. The training center is based on 6 pillars: organizational culture and attitude towards education, partnership with international institutions that contribute to education, learning and knowledge sharing funds, defined process of acquiring and sharing knowledge, communication methods for education that leads to change and a mechanism in place to monitor and evaluate the implemented educational activities.