EU central banks to devise reform agenda for Serbi

The European Central Bank (ECB), one of the 18, said Monday that the institutions would conduct a "nine-month needs analysis" programme for the Serbian central bank, which requested the assistance.

"The aim of the programme is to provide the National Bank of Serbia with a report that identifies areas in which potential progress could be made over the coming years by implementing new rules or policies, adopting practices or training staff," the ECB said.

It is hoped that the report will foster economic and financial cooperation between the Serbian central bank and the EU institutions. Thijs Kettenis, an adviser in the payments systems department of the Netherlands Bank, will serve as a resident programme coordinator, working on the report from Belgrade until June next year.

The analysis will cover six areas:

· banking supervision;

· harmonisation of Serbian and EU legislation;

· liberalisation of capital movements;

· conduct of monetary policy and the exchange-rate regime;

· monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics; and

· consumer protection.

The ECB will work with the Austrian, Belgian, British, Bulgarian, Cypriot, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, Estonian, Greek, French, Italian, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish and Romanian central banks on the project.

The EU is financing the project, which is expected to cost €400,000 ($584,000), through its Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation.

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina underwent a similar "needs analysis" exercise last year. A spokeswoman for the ECB told Central Bank News that the National Bank of Macedonia could receive similar assistance next year.

Click here to read the ECB's statement