Interview for MIA

Skopje, 22 August 2020

The taking of any supervisory measure and the making of any supervisory decision of the National Bank is preceded by a thorough and comprehensive analysis and assessment process. The process always involves a team of highly professional and devoted staff, who is responsible for each decision, including for Eurostandard Bank.

This in an interview for MIA was emphasized by the General Director of the Supervision Sector of the National Bank, Viktorija Gligorova.

– Each supervisory decision goes through several levels of analysis and decision-making, in order for the final decision to always be in the best interest of the depositors and creditors of the bank, Gligorova considers.

As she adds, the main objective of the supervision of the National Bank is to maintain a reliable and stable banking system and to protect the interests of depositors who have invested funds in the banks. 

- The established system and the manner of conducting supervision, Gligorova said, includes numerous internal controls and several levels of consideration and analysis of the findings, in order to ensure high professionalism and most importantly - making the most appropriate supervisory decisions. In this manner, it was also acted in the case of Eurostandard Bank and all possibilities for a more favorable solution for the Bank were exhausted.

She explained that the Decision from 1 June which was shared on the social networks and the Decision on revoking the license for operating Eurostandard Bank are two completely different decisions, adopted according to a different legal basis.

– The Decision from 1 June 2020 was adopted due to the fact that the amount of the own funds of Eurostandard Bank fell below the legally set level for performing a certain type of financial activities, such as the trading in securities on foreign markets, the trading in derivatives, etc., which require Tier 2 capital, above the Tier I capital. The revocation of the approval for performing some financial activities does not imply that the license for operating a bank is automatically revoked. Actually, some banks did not require and have no approval for performing this type of financial activities, Gligorova said, indicating that the Decision on closing Eurostandard Bank was adopted on 12 August, due to insolvency of the Bank.

The manner of conducting supervision and banking regulations in our country were subject to a thorough check by the IMF and the World Bank, thus confirming the high grade for the efficiency of banking supervision and its significant compliance with the Basel principles for efficient banking supervision.

The interview is available here.