18/04/2014

The European Central Bank (ECB), with the support of the European Union (EU), today has officially launched a program of technical cooperation with regional central banks, including the Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK), the Bank of Albania (BoA) and Bank of the Republic of Macedonia (NBRM). The launching program ceremony was held in Tirana with the participation of Mr. Yves Mersch, a member of the Executive Board of the ECB, Mr. Clive Rumbold, representative of the European Union, Mr. Bedri Hamza, the CBK Governor, Mr. Ardian Fullani, BoA Governor and Mr. Fadil Bajrami, Deputy Governor of NBRM. The purpose of the program is to prepare central banks in the region for inclusion in the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).

The ECB program for technical cooperation with the central banks in the region will provide the CBK with determining changes in preparation to join the ESCB, until the moment the Republic of Kosovo becomes a member of the European Union.  The program will strengthen institutional capacity of the CBK by identifying the legal, organizational and resources requirements in achieving compliance with the institutional and operational standard framework of the ESCB and the ECB. In the implementation of program regarding the CBK, besides the ECB, four other central banks of the Eurozone countries shall be included: Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Portugal. Seven CBK fields to be analyzed in terms of needs are identified: 1) Financial Stability, 2) Banking Supervision, 3) Payment Systems, 4) European Integration, 5) Information Technology, 6) Administration and 7) Internal Audit. There is an involvement of traditional fields of central bank policies with supportive and technical fields, which are in the function of promoting and maintaining a stable financial system as the primary CBK objective.