Skopje, 30 May 2003
Press release of the NBRM
Stirred by the article published in the last edition of the weekly magazine "Kapital", in which major falsehoods and dangerous speculations about the alleged destiny of certain banks in the Republic of Macedonia are announced, we would like to stress to the following:
1. Contrary to the heading of the published article, the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia, within its supervisory function, always aspires to find solutions for preserving the stability in the banking system of the Republic of Macedonia and protecting the interests of the depositors and other creditors of the banks. Hence, we strongly deny the information that the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia plans to close the banks mentioned in the heading of the article.
2. Also, we deny that the closure of those banks was either agreed or even discussed with the experts from the IMF or the World Bank. The subject of the discussions with the representatives of these international financial institutions is further strengthening of the supervisory function of the National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia towards preserving and further improving the stable performances of the banking system.
3. Mentioning of any bank in a negative context, especially for speculative purposes, represents a direct blow to the integrity of the particular bank, which jeopardizes the stability of the bank, and even more, the safety of the deposited assets of the citizens and enterprises with that bank. Such speculative articles would also endanger even the largest and the soundest banks in the developed countries. Thus, it is a question whom such articles serve to.
4. The heading of the article itself, is in our opinion sensationalistic, speculative, dangerous and extremely incorrect, it does not correspond to the context of the article, i.e. the article does not contain any strong argument which would support the heading itself. This is so because such arguments do not exist.
At the end, we would like to appeal to the media again to restrain from publishing any unverified information which could extensively harm not only the banking system, but the economic stability of the country, as well.
Supervision Department