You can contact the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo through:
E-mail: info@bqk-kos.org
Phone No.: 0383 38 222 055
Official mail at: Str. Garibaldi, No. 33 Prishtina, Kosovo.
No. The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo is not a commercial bank. It does not provide banking services, it does not open accounts nor accepts deposits from the general public. CBK licenses, supervises and regulates financial institutions operating in the country.
The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK) has exclusive responsibility for licensing/registering, supervising and regulating financial institutions: banks, insurers, pension funds, microfinance institutions, non-bank financial institutions, insurance intermediaries, claim handlers and other legal entities which exercise financial activities as defined by the legislation in force in the Republic of Kosovo.
These are the financial institutions licensed/registered by the CBK to exercise financial activity in the Republic of Kosovo: click here
Those interested to be licensed to exercise financial activity in the Republic of Kosovo are initially advised to read the relevant licensing manuals and frequently asked questions then to contact the Licensing and Standardization Department directly at the CBK for scheduling the informative meeting, which must be held before starting with the application process.
For more information please refer to the CBK’s official website, namely the Financial Licensing menu: https://bqk-kos.org/financial-supervision-2/licensing-of-financial-institutions/?lang=en
To be informed in more detail about your credit status, you must first apply for a credit report, which can be done in 3 ways:
Application to the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo, every working day from 8:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 16:00 - shall be accompanied by a copy of the ID card and the application form for the credit report which is taken at CBK or downloaded from the CBK’s official website: (https://www.bqk-kos.org/repository/docs/2017/Forma%20e%20re%20aplikimit%20per%20raport%20kreditor.pdf )
Application to any of the branches of commercial banks and through the citizen portal http://www.raportikreditor.org/ where, after being registered, the registration form and copy of the ID card shall be printed and brought to the CBK.
Following is the link where you can get more detailed information about the credit report application: https://bqk-kos.org/?id=44 ,whereas following that is the link where you can find the instructions to be followed in case of disputing the data in the Credit Registry system https://bqk-kos.org/banking-operations-3/credit-registry/disputing-of-credit-report-data/?lang=en .
We also would like to inform you that the client's history in the CBK Credit Registry is presented in the credit report in accordance with the applicable regulation. Once the criteria are met, the system automatically removes the historical information from being presented in the credit report.
*CBK does not place any client in any category and makes no change or removal of information.
Data storage in the credit history system of each client is determined by the respective regulations and cannot be corrected except for special cases when there is an error in reporting.
Based on the Instruction on Credit Registry (Credit Registry ), respectively Article 13, credit data shall be kept for up to five (5) years after the last update, with the remaining amount zero. Loans classified in the category W shall be submitted up to seven (7) years after the last update with the remaining amount zero. After this period, the data shall be archived. As for updating the data, you can refer to Article 5 of this instruction.
Credit history is the history of debt payments repayment for each credit product you owe to the bank. Credit providers are required to provide for the Credit Registry accurate, complete and timely information on each credit product of their clients.
The Division for Review of Appeals of Financial Services Users reviews only the appeals of the users (clients/customers) of financial services, namely appeals about financial products/services provided by licensed financial institutions in the country.
CBK advises you to first contact the relevant financial institution and seek solutions from them.
It is best to submit the appeal to the financial institution in writing because you can record everything you are told. Financial institutions under the supervision of the CBK are obliged to notify you in writing that they have received your appeal and must respond in writing within 15 days of your appeal date, letting you know if your appeal has been resolved or rejected.
Also, they should inform you in writing if they need more time to review your appeal.
Therefore, please pay attention to the deadline of 15 days from the day of the appeal before contacting the CBK. If you are not satisfied with the answer provided by the financial institution, if they have rejected your appeal or you did not receive a response within 15 days, then you can contact CBK.
In order to file an appeal with the CBK, you must complete the form which can be found at the Contact in the official website of the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo. The form is filled out according to the attached instructions and is sent by email to: mailto:ankesat@bqk-kos.org or through official mail at the address: Str. Garibaldi, No. 33, Prishtina, Kosovo, at the same time you can submit your appeals personally to archive office of the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo.
Appeals are accepted only in writing and the response will also be received in writing.
The CBK does not determine prices and fees for banks' products/services, they set prices and fees for their products and services individually based on their business policies.
However, through the “Regulation on Effective Interest Rate and Bank Disclosure Requirements”, the CBK requires banks that all prices and fees for their products and services be directly related to the cost of providing these products and services, and be disclosed visibly and be available to all their customers so that customers can compare the prices and fees of different banks.
The duration of the loan closure procedure is determined by the Law on Consumer Protection, as well as the terms of the credit contract you have entered into with the relevant financial institution.
Which loans cannot be paid in advance under the Law on Consumer Protection?
The Law on Consumer Protection states that the following are excluded from the scope of this law: (non-consumer loans) loans granted for housing, investment, and expansion of business or property, as well as loans secured by a mortgage or by any other comparable insurance, commonly used on immovable property, or secured by a right related to immovable property.
All other parties involved in a loan such as the co-borrower and the guarantor have the same liabilities and responsibilities towards the financial institution as the borrower himself/herself for the progress and timely repayment of the debt.
The European report is filled out in the case of a minor material accident (where the value of the damage does not exceed the amount of EUR 500). Therefore, if the value of the damage caused to your vehicle exceeds the foreseen amount, for the compensation of such damages, the case should be filled out with the Police Report.
Compulsory liability insurance of the owner and the holder of the motor vehicle for damages caused to third parties.
The insurance policy is contracted only by insurers licensed by the CBK. The insurance policy should be unique throughout the territory of the Republic of Kosovo.
TPL Plus means reciprocal recognition between the two countries, therefore motor vehicles and motor vehicle users registered in Kosovo who possess the valid TPL Plus insurance policy do not need border security in Macedonia, while for movement in Albania, valid local TPL policy is needed only.
Bonus-Malus System - is the system that is applied as a correction of the level of the motor liability insurance premium based on history of the insured damages.
To everyone insured in Kosovo, having a compulsory motor liability insurance contract (policy) with a term of at least one year, the premium level is set according to the bonus-malus system, namely according to the premium rates, depending on whether in the past period of the insurance (observation) there have been any declared damages or not.
Based on the Law No. 04/L-018 on Compulsory Motor Liability Insurance, the CBK has issued a regulation on the implementation of the Bonus-Malus system, which regulates the level of vehicle insurance premium, based on the history of claims of the insured. The importance of this system is that good and disciplined drivers and those who are cautious in traffic will benefit from the Bonus and at the same time drivers who cause accidents will be disadvantaged through Malus.
The Kosovo Insurance Bureau covers damages caused by uninsured motor vehicle with foreign registration plates, uninsured motor vehicle with local registration plates, unidentified motor vehicle, in case of liquidation or insolvency of the insurer and the compensations based on border security.
The injured party has the right to file a compensation claim based on motor liability insurance directly to the liable insurer. Procedures for receiving, registering, handling, paying and controlling compensation claims resulting from compulsory motor liability insurance can be found on the following link https://bqk-kos.org/repository/docs/korniza_ligjore/shqip/Procedurat%20e%20Trajtimit%20te%20kerkesave%20per%20kompensimin%20e%20demeve%20-%20autopergjegjesia.pdf
Statistics on direct investments in Kosovo are published on a regular monthly basis by the CBK, within the menu the menu “Statistics/Time Series”.
Please visit the CBK's official website, where you can find them all. Some of the tables are:
Foreign direct investment – by financial instruments
Foreign direct investment - by sector
Foreign direct investment - by country
Foreign direct investment - by geographical breakdown
Please visit the CBK's official website, where you can find them all.
We want to inform you that information on deposits can be found in the following link: https://www.bqk-kos.org/?id=55, while for more information, you may refer to other reports or publications available on the CBK's official website www.bqk-kos.org .
These data can be found on the CBK's official website, namely in the Time Series category, on the links below:
Remittance inflows - by channels
https://bqk-kos.org/repository/docs/time_series/31 Remittances-by channel.xls
Remittance inflows - by countries
https://bqk-kos.org/repository/docs/time_series/32 Remittances-by country.xls
Based on the Law on the Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo (CBK), the CBK collects, compiles and publishes statistics to achieve its objectives and beyond. At the same time, CBK also provides information on statistical methodology. Statistics under the CBK's direct responsibility are the Monetary and Financial Statistics, and the External Sector Statistics. More detailed information and details can be found in the following links:
Statistics: https://bqk-kos.org/?id=47, and
Time series: https://bqk-kos.org/?m=t&id=55
The CBK compiles data on interest rates on loans and deposits applied by commercial banks and microfinance institutions. In terms of deposits, we report the interest rates on current accounts, term deposits and saving deposits, while loans are reported disaggregated by purpose (investment loans, non-investment loans, consumer loans, overdrafts, etc.). For more information on interest rates, click here.
For rates applied by commercial banks, interest rates are published in these two tables:
ODC effective interest rates on loans
ODC effective interest rates on deposits
On the other hand, interest rates applied by the financial institutions are published in this table: OFI effective interest rates.
Besides commercial banks (ODCs), other institutions that deal with loan granting are the microfinance institutions, so-called other financial intermediaries or microfinance institutions. Unlike commercial banks, other financial intermediaries are engaged in lending in smaller amounts. All statistics on microfinance institutions can be found here.
The main tables are as follows:
Other Financial Intermediaries (OFI) survey
Statistics on commercial banks are published within the Time Series. These include tables for balance sheets, balances of success, deposits, loans, interest rates, exchange rate, etc. The main tables are as follows:
Other Depositary Corporations (ODC) Survey
ODC Balance sheet
ODC Income statement
ODC loans - by maturity
ODC loans - economic sectors
ODC loans - new loans
ODC investments in loans and deposits
Deposits at ODC - deposists in euro
Deposists at ODC - deposits in non-euro
Deposits and borrowing at ODC
ODC deposits - new deposits
Borrowings at ODC
Government Securities - Interest rates and amounts
Exchange rate
Payment system
ODC network and number of employees
Virtual money is not recognized as a legal payment or exchange tool, so these types of virtual money cannot be used as a legal payment tool.
Currently, there is no official local or international authority or institution that takes responsibility for your potential losses from investing in virtual money. Also, there is no basic or physical asset to be the support basis for their value. Due to anonymous and non-transparency, these types of virtual money can be used for dangerous activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as for other illegal activities.
The Central Bank of Kosovo warns the users of virtual platforms that these platforms are not regulated by law and are not supervised by regulatory authorities.
For more detailed information on the exchange rate, you can refer to the official website of the European Central Bank, namely the following link:
(https://bqk-kos.org/?id=89).
Where can I find the financial statements of insurance companies and commercial banks?
For the financial statements of banks, please refer to the following link: https://bqk-kos.org/?id=20, while for the financial statements of insurance companies, please refer to the following link: https://bqk-kos.org/?id=21.
Currently, there is only one interbank payment system (IPS) in Kosovo, operated and supervised by the CBK. This system provides clearing and settlement on a net basis automatically according to clearing sessions, and also on a gross basis for all transactions of interbank payment, securities, etc.
The new interbank payment system, called ATS (Automatic Transfer System), has been in use since 1 July 2016 and consists of two main components: the RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) component which enables the real-time transfer of funds as well as the ACH (Automatic Clearing House) component that processes group payments and low-value payments in three interbank clearing sessions at CBK.
Does this system operate according to international standards? This system is designed according to the latest international standards on payment systems (ISO 20022) and according to the latest technology and the best practices, thus making Kosovo one of the first countries to implement this standard.
Operational Role - Provides clearing and settlement infrastructure for interbank payments; it administers and operates a payment system (IPS – Interbank Payment System) for clearing and settlement of small and large value payments.
Oversight Role - Establishes rules and procedures, sets standards to promote and sustain a secure and efficient payment system for processing payments, as well as assesses the systems against established standards; and
Catalyst Role - Encourages and promotes safety and efficiency in the use of payment instruments and payment systems.
Where can I find additional information? Information on statistical publications, analyses and other information materials from the Payment System can be found at the following link: https://bqk-kos.org/?id=125.
The exchange of damaged euro banknotes and coins is done in commercial banks. The part of a genuine euro banknote should be presented to commercial banks in order to qualify for exchange, as this is a criterion of the minimum requirements to be met. These requirements relate mainly to the surface of the damaged banknote. On request, financial institutions (commercial banks) will exchange damaged genuine euro banknotes where:
a) at least 60% of the banknote’s surface is presented;
b) less than 60% and more than 50% of the banknote's surface is presented, if the applicant (client) proves, through a written report, that the missing parts have been destroyed unintentionally.
For the exchange of damaged euro banknotes, the financial institution (commercial bank) provides the applicant with a standard form to be completed. In cases where financial institutions (commercial banks) have sufficient reasons to believe that euro banknotes and coins have been deliberately damaged or a criminal offence has been committed with them, they will refuse to exchange them and they will inform the police authorities. Only if otherwise decided by the competent authorities at the end of the investigation, euro banknotes/coins will qualify for exchange. Euro banknotes damaged to a minor degree, e.g. by having tears, numbers or short words and similar written on them, will in principle not be considered to be intentionally damaged euro banknotes.
Does the Central Bank exchange damaged banknotes?
No, it does not.