Although the effects of the global financial crisis have largely been overcome, however, the banking systems in our region are still facing the need to further strengthen their financial stability, which should allow a solid prudent credit growth. In this regard, it is necessary to continue activities to strengthen regulations and practices, with a focus on domestic funding sources and further consolidation of banking systems. The indicators point to a large number of banks compared to the size of the economies in our region. This was, among other things, emphasized by the Governor of the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia, Anita Angelovska Bezhoska, at the international conference titled “The Risks and Opportunities in a Continuously Evolving Financial Landscape – The Way Forward”, held in Prishtina yesterday, organized by the Central Bank of Kosovo. She was one of the speakers at the conference session on the risks and opportunities for further development of the financial systems of the Western Balkan countries.

In her presentation, the Governor also focused on the growing presence of new technologies in banks' operations and the FinTech environment, as a challenge to the modernization and digitization of the manner the financial services are offered.

The session on the risks and opportunities for further development of the financial systems of the Western Balkan countries, besides Angelovska-Bezoska, was also attended by her colleagues - the Governor of the Bank of Albania, the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Kosovo, the Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro and the Director of the Banking Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the Deputy Director of the Financial Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was the moderator.

At the Conference, a Memorandum of Understanding between some of the supervisors of the banking systems in the region, in the area of corporate management of the banks, was also signed. Pursuant to the provisions of the Memorandum, in the future, its signatory supervisors will also have a common database of key elements of the banks’ corporate governance framework, such as the ownership structure of banks and the composition of their governing and supervisory bodies and their competences.