The European Central Bank (ECB) will undertake a comprehensive assessment of five Croatian banks. This exercise, which will comprise an asset quality review (AQR) and a stress test, follows Croatia’s submission of a request in May 2019 seeking to establish close cooperation between the ECB and Hrvatska narodna banka. A comprehensive assessment is required as part of the process of establishing close cooperation between the ECB and the national competent authority of an EU Member State whose currency is not the euro.
The following five banks will be assessed:
- Zagrebačka banka
- Privredna banka Zagreb
- Erste & Steiermärkische Bank
- OTP banka Hrvatska
- Hrvatska poštanska banka
The AQR and the stress test will be based on the methodologies applied by ECB Banking Supervision in its regular comprehensive assessments of credit institutions that have recently been classified as significant or could potentially become significant. The AQR will be carried out using the ECB’s updated AQR methodology published in June 2018, which takes account of the impact of accounting standard IFRS 9.
This exercise is expected to start in September 2019, with the results due to be finalised in May 2020. Banks will be assessed on the basis of data as at 30 June 2019.
Assess relevant Croatian legislation
The ECB will also assess relevant Croatian legislation, ensuring that Hrvatska narodna banka will be obliged to adopt all measures requested by the ECB in relation to Croatian credit institutions. As part of that assessment, the ECB will also take account of the practical implementation of such legislation.
Potential future role
In parallel, ECB Banking Supervision is working closely with Hrvatska narodna banka in view of its potential future role as a national competent authority within the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The steps that are being taken in this regard are in line with the process that was recently followed for Bulgaria.
Source: https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu
