National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia Council held its thirteenth session
Today, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia Council held its thirteenth session.
At the meeting, the Decision on requirements for securities in which an authorized bank can invest abroad was discussed and adopted. This decision, which is adopted in order to comply with the amendments to the Law on Foreign Exchange Operations from 12 June 2015, sets forth the requirements that the securities should meet in order to enable the domestic banks to invest in them. Credit rating, given by internationally renowned credit rating agencies remains to be the main requirement that enables the domestic commercial bank to invest in certain security abroad. In addition, if the security does not meet the prescribed requirements, a maximum three-month deadline is set during which the domestic commercial bank should alienate the foreign security or close the position in foreign derivative financial instrument.
At the meeting, the Decision on amending the Decision on introducing special protective measures was also adopted. The proposed Decision introduces two amendments concerning the special protective measures which limit the outflow of capital to Greek entities. Namely, the ban on credit insurance is abolished, having in mind that according to the Law on Insurance Supervision the legal entities and natural persons performing activity and the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia are insured in an insurance company established according to the respective Law. Also, payment of advance dividend to nonresidents from the Republic of Greece is allowed, only if the payment is made in accordance with the law, for which the resident-legal entity that makes the advance payment of dividend, should submit an adequate proof to the authorized bank.
In order to stimulate households' longer-term savings in domestic currency and making room to boost the credit activity with banks, at today's meeting of the National Bank Council, a Decision on amending the Decision on reserve requirement was adopted. The amendments reduce the reserve requirement rate for the bank liabilities to natural persons in domestic currency with contractual maturity of over one year from 8% to 0%, whereby these liabilities have the same treatment as the liabilities with maturity of over two years, for which rate of 0% has been applied since 2012. Having in mind that the amendment releases the banks from the reserve requirement for the natural persons' denar deposits with maturity exceeding one year, this measure is expected to bring about larger supply of denar savings products with stimulating interest rates.
Besides, at the Council session, in order to intensify the effectiveness of the measures with the reserve requirement system aimed to support denar savings, the Decision on amending the Decision on central bank bills was adopted. It envisages adjustment of the mechanism of participation in central bank bills auction of the National Bank, where the main criterion will be the individual share of the banks in the total liabilities in domestic currency without currency clause of the banking system. With the amendments, the National Bank continues to support the natural persons' savings in domestic currency also on a longer run, which creates room for the banks for an active credit support to the private sector.
At today's session, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia Council, based on the planned schedule and pace of activities, also adopted the Decisions on issuing the collector coins "Alexander", "Anna", "Dmitry" and "Elena", and the Decisions on putting into circulation the collector coins "Alexander" and "Anna" from the "Angel's Day" series. The coins will be issued in a denomination of 100 denars, in 5000 pieces.
The Council also discussed other matters within its jurisdiction.