Close cooperation and direct supervision of European Central Bank over Croatian banks

Now the necessary supervisory and legislative prerequisites have been fulfilled, the European Central Bank Governing Council has adopted a decision to establish close cooperation with the Croatian National Bank. As a result, Croatia has joined the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism, whose members include all the Euro-area states that already enjoy close cooperation with the European Central Bank. This means, among other things, that from 1 October 2020, the European Central Bank will directly supervise many important Republic of Croatia institutions.

Prior to commencing this direct supervision, the European Central Bank assessed all the significant credit institutions in Croatia and decided to supervise the following directly: (i) Zagrebačka banka d.d., (ii) Privredna banka Zagreb d.d., (iii) Erste & Steiermärkische Bank d.d., (iv) PBZ stambena štedionica d.d., (v) Raiffeisenbank Austria d.d., (vi) Raiffeisen stambena štedionica d.d., (vii) Sberbank d.d., and (viii) Addiko Bank d.d. Less significant institutions will continue to be supervised by the Croatian National Bank; however, the European Central Bank may decide to supervise any further institution directly to ensure high supervisory standards are consistently applied.

Powers vested in the European Central Bank

From 1 October 2020 the European Central Bank is the competent authority for the above mentioned directly supervised credit institutions in Croatia, and has all the powers and obligations set out in the Council Regulation (EU) No 1024/2013 of 15 October 2013, including all the powers and obligations the Croatian National Bank has under the relevant EU law, such as reviewing of the supervised institutions’ own funds requirements, securitisation, large exposure limits, liquidity, leverage, ensuring compliance with EU law, carrying out supervisory reviews and imposing prescribed measures etc.

Common Procedures

Apart from the above mentioned powers and obligations, the European Central Bank is now also in charge of the procedures for granting and withdrawing authorisation for a business to act as a credit institution in Croatia and deciding on the acquisition and disposal of qualifying holdings in Croatian credit institutions.

For both common procedures, applications should still be submitted to the Croatian National Bank; however the European Central Bank has the final say in both of the procedures.

In addition to the concurrent inclusion of the Croatian Kuna in the Exchange Rate Mechanism II, joining the Single Supervisory Mechanism and Single Resolution Mechanism has brought Croatia one step closer to entering the Eurozone.