08.07.2016

 

The scoping mission of the 2017 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Update ended today. The mission was conducted in the period 5 - 8 July and consisted of representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Bulgarian National Bank, the Financial Supervision Commission, the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund, the auditors conducting the bank asset quality review and non-banking sector auditors.

The wrap-up meeting, held at the Ministry of Finance today, was attended by the Minister of Finance Mr. Vladislav Goranov, the BNB Deputy Governor in charge of the Issue Department Mr. Kalin Hristov, the mission chiefs - Mr. Michael Moore for the IMF and Mr. Ilias Skamnelos for the World Bank, the WB Country Manager for Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia Mr. Antony Thompson, the IMF Resident Representative for Bulgaria and Romania Mr. Alejandro Hajdenberg and Ms. Nolvia Saca Saca from the IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department.

During the discussion the participants outlined the next steps for the preparation and conducting of the assessment itself, which will cover the entire financial sector in our country; it will also take into account the results of the review of banks' and pensions insurance companies' assets and insurance companies' balance sheets. In July - September, on the basis of questionnaires developed by the World Bank and the IMF, the Bulgarian institutions will provide the information needed for the analysis, which will be discussed during the two missions of the WB and the IMF in Sofia in October 2016 and January 2017. The report containing the conclusions of the evaluating institutions is expected to be finalised and made available to the competent authorities in Bulgaria by the end of May/June 2017.

We would like to remind that FSAP is an assessment to be undertaken jointly by the IMF and the World Bank and is a comprehensive and an in-depth analysis of a country's financial sector and includes two major components, i.e. a financial stability assessment and a financial development assessment. The Program was established in 1999 with a twofold goal, i.e. to gauge the stability and soundness of and the risks for a country's financial sector, and to assess its potential contribution to growth and development, and it also helps the authorities d