The Governor meets the Executive Director of the Dutch-Belgian Constituency in the IMF

04/09/2019

The Governor of the Central Bank, Radoje Žugić and his associates met the Executive Director of the Dutch-Belgian Constituency in the IMF, Anthony De Lannoy, during his official visit to Montenegro.

Governor Žugić informed Mr. De Lannoy about core macroeconomic indicators as well as with the situation in the financial sector, together with plans and activities of the CBCG referring to the further strengthening of the financial stability. 

The Governor pointed out that our economy has been continuously growing over the last six years and that a high growth rate is also expected during this year. This is mostly caused by developments in tourism, energy and construction. "The situation in the banking sector has strengthened following the resolution of issues related to vulnerable banks, as evidenced by excellent indicators of key balance sheet positions in 13 banks operating in Montenegro”, Governor Žugić said. The assets of banks, amounting to 4.5 billion euros, is at its record high, as well as liquid assets in the amount of 1.1 billion euros. The stability of the banking sector is also confirmed by the extremely high solvency ratio of 19.51%, which is almost two times higher than the statutory minimum of 10%. The Governor also said that since the end of last year, when the CBCG began activities towards resolving the situation at IBM and Atlas Bank, deposits increased by more than 300 million euros.

Director De Lannoy pointed out that “this trend of deposits and the fact that the introduction of bankruptcy at IBM and Atlas Bank did not have a negative impact on the rest of the banking sector shows that the Central Bank of Montenegro has carried out activities related to the situation in these banks in a professional and high-quality manner" and added that the IMF recognizes the progress made in the financial sector.

During the meeting, the participants also discussed the activities taken by the CBCG in the implementation of the planned asset quality review of the banking system (AQR), further strengthening of supervision, especially in the segment of prevention of money laundering, and modernisation of payment system operations.

Montenegro is a member of the Dutch-Belgian Constituency, representing the Montenegrin interests in the IMF and comprising 14 other countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Israel, the Republic of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine.