CBCG Governor at High-Level International Conference in Brussels: Financial Stability and European Regulatory Challenges
16/02/2026
The CBCG Governor, Irena Radović, participated in a high-level international conference in Brussels titled “2025: The End of an Era? What Comes Next?”, organised by the National Bank of Belgium.
The conference is a part of an initiative launched in 2014 and alternately hosted by the National Bank of Belgium and De Nederlandsche Bank, with the aim of exchanging views on current global economic developments, financial stability, and the role of central banks in conditions of heightened uncertainty and structural change.
The Brussels conference brought together governors and senior representatives of central banks from countries belonging to the constituency of the International Monetary Fund. Participants discussed key issues related to the conclusion of one economic cycle and the outlook for monetary and financial policy in the coming period, with particular emphasis on the resilience of financial systems, regulatory trends, and the future priorities of central banks.
Governor Radović took part as a panellist in the session entitled “Financial Stability: Are We Moving Towards an Era of Deregulation?”, chaired by the Governor of the Croatian National Bank, Boris Vujčić. Other speakers included John Berrigan, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA) at the European Commission, and Andréa Maechler, Deputy General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements.
The panel concluded that the EU advocates the view that simplifying the regulatory framework does not mean lowering standards, but rather improving them through greater coherence, proportionality, and efficiency.
In her remarks, Governor Radović emphasised that the EU accession process entails not only formal alignment with the EU acquis, but also the development of a regulatory and supervisory framework that is robust, efficient, and competitive at the same time.
“In this context, the initiatives of the ECB and the European Commission aimed at simplifying the prudential framework demonstrate that it is possible to reduce regulatory complexity without weakening standards,” Governor Radović stated. She further underlined that financial system resilience is a prerequisite for competitiveness for Montenegro, as a small, open and highly euroised economy. A stable and predictable regulatory framework, she noted, reduces risk, strengthens investor confidence, and directly affects the cost of financing for both the economy and the state.
“We support an approach combining European harmonisation, greater proportionality for smaller systems, and the modernisation of supervision, while fully preserving the achieved level of financial stability. Financial resilience built on a strong regulatory framework is not the opposite of competitiveness – it is its foundation and a key element of our progress towards full membership in the European Union and the European System of Central Banks,” Governor Radović concluded.
The Governor also highlighted the need to apply a comprehensive, systemic macroprudential approach to safeguarding financial stability, given the growing role of non-bank financial intermediation and the rapid development of financial innovation.
The CBCG Vice-Governor Gordana Kalezić and the Director of the Financial Stability, Research and Statistics Department at the CBCG, Marijana Mitrović Mijatović also attended the conference in Brussels.