Skopje, 6 December 2023

Macedonian banks, well capitalized and liquid, faced the several crises in the past period. Their resistance to the crisis was due to their strengthened balance sheets even in the pre-pandemic period. The National Bank continues to strengthen the resilience of the banking system also in the post-pandemic crisis period, introducing macro-prudential measures. Despite the great precaution and the monetary tightening, the banking sector also in the past period provides solid credit support to both companies and households, with a growth of about 10% last year and 6% this year, said the Governor of the National Bank, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, in her discussion at the Banking Summit of the Association of Serbian Banks, which was held in Belgrade.

At the panel discussion devoted to the current issues and challenges for the banking sector from regulators’ point of view, the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska pointed out that if the monetary policy tightening is fast, aggressive and follows after a long period of relaxed monetary policy and if the macro-prudential and supervisory regulations are weaker, it may have significant influence on the stability of the banking sector. Hence, although the domestic banking sector entered the crisis period strong, the National Bank remains cautious and strengthens the resilience of the system through macro-prudential measures. The Governor emphasized the introduction of the countercyclical capital buffer, as well as the measures for the quality of borrowers. Discussing the banking sector indicators, Angelovska Bezhoska underlined that in the past few years the capital adequacy increased, and the quality of capital has reached the historically highest level, while liquidity is traditionally high, whereby the deposit base registered higher long-term deposits and denar deposits, while the asset quality is better compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Discussing the medium-term and long-term challenges for the banking sector, the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska stressed that in addition to the geoeconomic fragmentation, climate changes remain a significant risk. When it comes to the Macedonian banking sector, more than half of the total credit exposure of banks to companies is to sectors that are sensitive to climate policies. Hence, the central bank undertakes several activities for climate risk management, including the adoption of the medium-term plan of activities, as well as the adoption of the guidelines for banks for inclusion of climate risks in their risk management framework. Furthermore, green loans in the past four years increased by more than twice in the total credit portfolio of banks.

The panel discussion where the Governor Angelovska Bezhoska spoke, was also attended by the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, the Governor of the Croatian National Bank, the Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the President of the Securities Commission of Serbia, as well as the Supervision Director of the Central Bank of Montenegro.