CBCG Council Meeting
29/11/2024
Today, the Council of the Central Bank of Montenegro held a meeting chaired by the CBCG Governor Irena Radović.
The Council adopted the Central Bank of Montenegro Strategic Plan for 2025-2028. The Plan defines the vision, mission and strategic goals for the next four-year period. It also adopted the Central Bank of Montenegro Policy in 2025, which specifies the primary activities of the CBCG during the following year, primarily aimed at accelerating European integration, transforming the payment system to align with Montenegro’s recent membership in SEPA and improving bank supervision practices following the methodology of the European Central Bank (ECB) and other EU practices.
To improve the transparency and efficiency of international reserves management, the Council adopted the Decision on International Reserves Management. This Decision prescribes the international reserves management goal and principles, powers and responsibilities, risk management and reporting, i.e. all non-confidential aspects of managing these reserves. This approach is expected to better understand the CBCG’s procedures and policies and strengthen the public’s trust in its work.
Banks expected credit standards and credit conditions1 for households and the corporate sector to ease in Q3 2024 compared to the previous quarter, according to data from the Report on Bank Lending Survey Results for Q3 2024, discussed today at the Council meeting. Banks expect the easing of lending standards and credit conditions to continue in the next quarter. As they assessed, this will result from a more favourable general economic situation, increased competition, lower uncollectibility of receivables, and decreased interest margins. At the same time, the corporate sector may expect lower commissions and fees.
At today’s meeting, the Council discussed and adopted reports on the operations and policy implementation of the Central Bank and other materials within its competence.
1 Credit standards imply the criteria for the approval of loans that define the following: type of loan, recognised sectoral or geographical priorities, collateral acceptability, the creditworthiness of the debtors, and the like, while credit terms and conditions imply mandatory elements from the loan agreement, e.g. loan amount, interest rate, commission and fee expenses, collateral required or guarantees to be provided and the like.