Press Releases 2018 - February

28.02.2018 - Open Call for Charity Art Auction

22.02.2018 - IMF commends Montenegro's progress

21.02.2018 - Meeting of the CBCG Governor and Addiko Bank AG Vienna Management

19.02.2018 - Governor Žugić as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Economics

16.02.2018 - Central bank transparency as monetary policy challenge

09.02.2018 - Positive trends in the banking system continue

CENTRAL BANK OF MONTENEGRO
Podgorica, 28 February 2018

Open Call for Charity Art Auction

With a view to intensifying its charity activities, and giving a greater contribution to the development and affirmation of arts and artists, the Central Bank of Montenegro plans to use the Day of the Central Bank of Montenegro – 11 April as an opportunity to host a charity art auction.  To that end, the Central Bank of Montenegro’s Money Museum has put forth an open call to the members of the Association of Fine Artists of Montenegro (AFAM) to submit their artworks for the auction. The text of the open call is available here.

In line with the rules of the open call, 50% of the amount raised by selling an artwork will be given to its author whereas the remaining 50% will be given to charity.

Application deadline is 9 March 2018. Applications shall be submitted via e-mail: [email protected]. Application must contain author’s full name, address, phone number, painting technique used in the artwork, and the dimensions of the artwork.

Artwork submission deadline is 4 April 2018. The artworks are to be submitted to the Central Bank of Montengro, Bulevar Sv. Petra Cetinjskog 6, Podgorica or to the Money Museum, Njegoševa 122, Cetinje.

CENTRAL BANK OF MONTENEGRO
Podgorica, 22 February 2018

IMF commends Montenegro's progress

The Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr Radoje Žugić and his associates met today with the delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), headed by Mr Martin Petri, Head of the IMF Mission to Montenegro. The mission is visiting our country for the purpose of holding regular annual consultations under Article IV of the IMF Articles of Agreement.

The Governor informed the IMF representatives about the situation in the banking sector and the ongoing CBCG activities. The Governor stated that the financial stability has been significantly improved in the previous year, which can be confirmed by the key business indicators recorded in the previous year, primarily lending activity and deposits increase, maintaining the liquidity and solvency levels above the statutory minimum, as well as the more sound banks’ assets and the fact that banks are adequately capitalised. On the other hand, in 2017, the banking system experienced a downturn in interest rates as well as in non-performing loans and receivables, which showed a year-on-year decline of 21% at the end 2017, thus their current share in total loans amounts to 7.29%.

The Governor also informed the IMF representatives about the intensive regulatory activities of the CBCG carried out in the previous year with a view to aligning with the European Union directives and introducing the best practices.

Mr Petri commended the results achieved in the area of improvement of fiscal and financial stability and expressed his support of the CBCG activities aimed at maintaining the financial system stability, which have contributed to the strengthening of the economy along with the results of the fiscal consolidation. “There has been a significant improvement in the regulatory framework in the segment of financial system”, said Mr Petri, stating also  that  he sees the CBCG taking over the supervision of financial service providers as a positive move.

The IMF Mission will be staying in our country until 7 March, when the press conference is scheduled to present the Mission findings on the state of our economy and the outlook for upcoming period.

CENTRAL BANK OF MONTENEGRO
Podgorica, 21 February 2018

Meeting of the CBCG Governor and Addiko Bank AG Vienna Management

The Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr Radoje Žugić, met with the representatives of Addiko Bank - Mr Henning Giesecke, Member of the Supervisory Board of Addiko Bank AG Vienna, Mr. Johannes Proksch, member of the Management Board of Addiko Bank AG Vienna, who is also a Chairman of the Board of Directors Addiko Bank AD Podgorica, and Mr Christoph Schoen, Chief Executive Officer of Addiko Bank AD Podgorica.

Representatives of Addiko Bank AG Group, which operates through six banks and their branches in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, pointed out that this financial institution achieved excellent results in key business segments during the last year, which created a good basis for further sustainable and profitable growth.

As pointed out by the members of the Management, the Group, in accordance with the new strategy, is focused on retail sector and the financing of the real sector, especially micro and small enterprises, as well as regional companies. Mr Schoen pointed out that Montenegro has a competence centre for the development of the micro-segment of the economy, with a view to exploiting synergy and ensuring greater cohesion and, ultimately, providing better customer service.

Governor Žugić expressed his satisfaction with the positive trends that characterised the business dealings of Addiko Bank in the previous year and pointed out that the CBCG will continue to improve communication and cooperation with this institution, with the aim of strengthening the security and stability of Montenegro's financial system as well as intensifying support to the economy, and thus contribute to a more dynamic of economic growth.

CENTRAL BANK OF MONTENEGRO
Podgorica, 19 February 2018

Governor Žugić as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Economics

The Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr Radoje Žugić, gave a lecture on Economic Policy – The role and Importance of the CBCG, to the students of the Faculty of Economics.

During his presentation, Governor Žugić spoke about the general objectives of economic policy, the indicators for measuring its success, as well as about its function in the process of accelerating economic growth. The Governor of the CBCG explained to the students the structural aspect of economic policy, stressing the dominance of fiscal policy in relation to the monetary economy, and emphasised that both of them are in the function of sustainability of the real sector of the economy. "We must continue with the activities towards minimising the identified weaknesses, and especially focus on improving the competitiveness of our economy," said the Governor of the CBCG.

Speaking about the role and mission of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Žugić pointed out that the most important goal and the constitutional responsibility of the CBCG is to preserve the monetary and financial stability, especially the stability of the banking system. In this regard, key activities of the CBCG are related to monitoring and analysing the situation in the banking system, as well as taking corrective measures with a view to maintaining a healthy banking system.
 
After the introductory presentation, there was a number of questions from students who were interested in hearing and learning more about monetary policy and banking supervision in the Montenegrin market, as well as about the currently interesting topic of cryptocurrencies.

The lecture of the Governor of the CBCG at the Faculty of Economics was organised as part of the Right Start, an event which traditionally marks the beginning of the summer semester at this faculty.

CENTRAL BANK OF MONTENEGRO
Podgorica, 16 February 2018

Central bank transparency as monetary policy challenge

The Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr Radoje Žugić, takes part in the international conference entitled "Conference on Central Bank Communication and Transparency”, which is being held today in Amsterdam, organised by the De Nederlandsche Bank and the National Bank of Belgium.

The Conference was opened by the President of De Nederlandsche Bank, Mr. Klaas Knot, and it gathers the governors and other representatives of the central banks of the Belgian/Dutch Constituency in the International Monetary Fund, high officials of the IMF and the European Central Bank, as well as professors from the Cambridge University. The participants take part in the discussions on central bank transparency, which has become one of the key challenges of monetary policy, and its influence on perceiving public expectations and response of the financial markets, and thereby its impact on financial stability.

In his speech, the Governor Žugić emphasised that it is necessary for the central banks to abandon the principle of closed institutions and begin with a trend of increase of transparency of their activity and improve the communication with the stakeholders. Increase in central bank transparency, according to the Governor Žugić, “may increase the credibility of the institution and, by imposing the responsibility to monetary policy creators, may increase the possibility of maintaining consistent monetary policy”. However, it should be born in mind that excessive level of central bank transparency could jeopardise the level of financial stability, thus the maintenance of its optimum level should be taken into consideration.

Members of the Belgian/Dutch Constituency in the IMF, of which Montenegro is a member as well, concluded today that the transparency, which simplifies the communication and enables the public to understand better monetary policy activities and its impact on economic trends, should be encouraged. On the other hand, due to the possible risk to financial stability, a high level of caution is recommended in increasing transparency, particularly in the supervision area, which must keep its distance from clients.

CENTRAL BANK OF MONTENEGRO
Podgorica, 9 February 2018

Positive trends in the banking system continue

The Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr. Radoje Žugić, held a meeting with the chief executive officers of commercial banks operating in Montenegro.

Discussions on the situation in the banking system and results achieved last year led to a conclusion that all banking system parameters have significantly improved. “Growth in deposits of 13.6% speaks in favour of restored confidence in the banking system”, said the Governor Žugić. Besides deposits, lending activity also rose, by 11.8%, while the share of non-performing loans in total receivables reached the lowest level since the financial crisis outbreak of 7.29%. Effective interest rates continued trending downward, hitting an all-time low of 6.81%. The Governor Žugić added that the CBCG encourages banks to support economic growth of the country more strongly by supporting the valorisation of potential of our economy and the expansion of the economic base.

Discussions continued with proposals for further improvement of safety and soundness of the banking system. To that end and due to significant positive effects of the implementation of the Law amending the Law on Voluntary Financial Restructuring of Debts towards Financial Institutions, it was agreed that the validity of the law should be extended for another year.

The conclusion of today`s meeting is that regular meetings and open discussions on all current developments in the financial market are a practice that contributes to a closer cooperation and, consequently, better functioning of the overall system.