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11/09/2026

Chedi hotel, Luštica, 4 September 2026

Mr. President, 

Governors and fellow central bankers, 

Excellencies, 

Representatives of public institutions, leaders of banking and financial community, 

Distinguished representatives of international and European institutions, 

Members of academia, 

Dear colleagues, partners and friends.

Good morning and a very warm welcome to Montenegro. It is a pleasure to have you with us as we mark the 25^th anniversary of the Central Bank of Montenegro.

We celebrate this milestone in a year of exceptional significance for our country, 20 years since the restoration of Montenegro's independence, and at a moment when our European journey is entering its final stretch. With all remaining chapters expected to be closed by mid-December and work on Montenegro's accession treaty already underway, EU membership is becoming a tangible prospect. For the central bank, this gives the anniversary a distinctly forward-looking significance.

As Montenegro moves towards EU membership, the central bank is preparing for being and transporting the credibility it has built over 25 years into a new institutional setting, first as a member of the European system of central banks and at a later stage as part of the Euro system. So today is not only about what we have achieved, it is about the institution we are becoming. And we are doing so in a demanding moment for central banking.

After years of successive shocks, global economy has shown remarkable resilience, yet resilience is not the same as stability. Trade is increasingly being shaped by security, energy by geopolitics, and technology by strategic competition, while digitalization and AI bring major opportunities and new risks and vulnerabilities. The world has become more connected and more fragmented at the same time.

Shocks travel faster, risks cross borders more easily, and confidence can be lost more quickly. Yet amid all this change, our core purpose remains constant, to preserve stability, safeguard trust, and protect confidence in the financial system. And that is why the themes of today's conference, stability, infrastructure, and trust, go to the heart, to the very heart of the modern central banking.

Stability is what society expects from us. Infrastructure allows monetary and financial systems to function safely and efficiently, and trust makes both possible. For Montenegro, these principles have a particular resonance and there could be hardly a more fitting place to reflect on them than here in Boka.

For centuries, it has connected Montenegro with the wider world, through trade, ideas, knowledge, and people. Boca embodies a long European tradition of openness and exchange. And that same approach for connection and search for connection, stability, and secure place in Europe has also shaped Montenegro's modern economic history.

In November 1999, amid profound economic disruption and the painful legacy of hyperinflation, as you have seen in the video, Montenegro introduced the Deutsche Mark as its sole legal tender, followed by coordinated unilateral adoption of the euro in 2002. It was an unconventional choice with a clear purpose, to restore monetary stability, to rebuild confidence, and provide a firm foundation for growth. Montenegro thus chose the European path to monetary and financial stability long before EU membership was within reach.

Two and a half decades ago, but there today, there is a profound difference between using Europe's currency and sharing in responsibilities and the benefits of the framework that underpins the single European currency. For a small euroized economy such as ours, that difference is particularly significant. Without a national currency and without own conventional monetary policy instruments, institutional credibility, prudent supervision, and resilient financial infrastructure carry even greater weight.

But institutions do not build themselves. Behind every regulation adopted, every bank supervised, every payment system modernized, and every difficult decision taken, there have been people. Their expertise, independence, judgment, and integrity are real institutional capital of the Central Bank of Montenegro.

Systems can be built and laws can be aligned. Credibility cannot. It must be carried through the, and earned through the quality and consistency of decisions over time.

That combination of capability, infrastructure, and trust is reflected in our payments system transformation. SEPA has made cross-border payments faster and dramatically cheaper. While since 20th of July, TIPS clone has enabled instant payments within seconds, 24 seven.

And these achievements were made possible by the strong engagement of our banking sector. But integration goes well beyond payments. Just yesterday, together with our euro system partners, we concluded the Central Bank of Montenegro needs assessment, which is a, well, the most comprehensive institutional assessment and review in our history, preparing the bank for the future role in the European system of central banks and eventually the euro system.

Our task now is to turn a strong foundation into full operational readiness, strengthening analytical capacity, integrating our data and technology with European systems, reinforcing operational resilience and investing in the expertise to perform effectively and efficiently as a member of the European system of central banks. This work, this most profound institutional assessment and scrutiny over the past 25 years was led by our Belgian and Dutch colleagues by the Netherlands, the bank and the national bank of Belgium in partnership with the Deutsche Bundesbank and other colleagues from the euro system with its second phase supported by the European commission. And I'm using this opportunity to express how deeply we are grateful for your expertise and partnership.

As accession advances, the nature of our preparation will also change following the signature of accession treaty, which may come in the coming, I should not say weeks, but months. Central bank of Montenegro is expected to enter the observer status across more than 20 committees and working structure of the European system of central banks. Our experts will then move progressively from preparing for the European system from the outside to participating in its work from within. And observer status is not simply about being present at the table. It means understanding and challenging analysis, working confidently with European system of central banks, methodologies and data, contributing national perspectives, technical discussions and translating European requirements into concrete institutional preparation at home. This is why our objective is not to become ready on the day when Montenegro joins the European union. It is to be ready way before that day. 

Wim Duisenberg, the first president of the European central bank said at the establishment of the European system of central banks that perhaps its most important challenge was to win the confidence of citizens of Europe. More than a quarter of a century later, that remains very true.

For central banks, trust is a core policy asset built over time, tested in moments of uncertainty and never to be taken for granted. EU membership will bring Montenegro into the European system of central banks as an EU national bank, moving from monetary integration without an institutional voice to integration with responsibility and accountability. For a small open economy such as ours, Europe provides scale, depth and shared resilience.

But integration is a two-way process. A well-prepared central bank does not simply benefit from the system, it contributes to its strength. 

So, as we celebrate 25 years of the central bank of Montenegro, we stand between two chapters. Our first 25 years were about building the institution capable of protecting monetary and financial stability and earning trust. The next are about bringing that institution into European central banking system, ready not only to join but to contribute. And to conclude, all of this ultimately comes back to people. Above all, to the citizens of Montenegro, whose prosperity and European future give purpose to everything we do. 

Mr. President, governors, excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, thank you for joining us on this special occasion. I want also to thank all European, international and domestic partners who have accompanied the central bank of Montenegro throughout different stages of our development and our banking community for its professionalism and shared commitment to a stable and modern financial system.

But today, my final words go to the women and men of the Central Bank of Montenegro, those who built it, those who serve it today and those who will carry it forward. What we have achieved over the past 25 years rests on your expertise, judgment, integrity and commitment to public service. As we begin our next chapter, that remains our greatest strength and our greatest responsibility, to preserve what has been built, to keep raising the bar and to ensure that the central bank of Montenegro enters its European future ready to add value from day one.

Thank you.

Irena Radović | Welcome Address | CBCG 25^th Anniversary Conference