Bulgaria’s C-Bank Moves to Improve Supervisory Role

Bulgaria’s central bank BNB on Monday adopted a plan for reforming its banking supervision activities which takes into account the conclusions made by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the country’s Audit Office.

The reform plan is intended to make Bulgaria’s banking supervision practices comply as closely as possible with the current international standard, namely the Basel Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision from 2012, the BNB said in a statement.

The plan has been drafted for about a year following the collapse of Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) in the summer of 2014.

The blueprint identifies problematic practices and structural deficiencies in BNB’s banking supervision function that need to be addressed in 2015 and 2016 to make supervision more efficient.

To avoid exposing the supervisory function to risks associated with vesting the majority of the powers of supervision in the BNB deputy governor in charge of banking supervision, in the future the BNB Governing Council will approve the internal rules and manuals regulating supervisory activities.

Another change, which aims to make the Banking Supervision Department more accountable, provides for issuing quarterly reports to the Governing Council about the detected problems, the measures undertaken for their resolving as well as the changes in the shareholding structure of commercial banks. The department will also have to pass yearly audits of compliance of its activities with the regulations.

The changes also provide for the eastablishment of a new body, a Bank Restructuring Directorate, outside the Banking Supervision Department.