Visit of the UniCredit Bank Delegation to the CBBH

In the premises of the CBBH, Today, on July 13 July 2015,Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) Kemal Kozarić, Ph.D. and Vice Governor Radomir Božić, Ph.D. met with a high delegation of the UniCredit Group from the Republic of Italy, led by Federico Ghizzonijem, General Director General of the UniCredit Group, and accompanied by Carlo Vivaldi, Director of UniCredit Group for business operations in Central and Eastern Europe, Giuseppe Scognamiglio, Director of UniCredit Group in cooperation with international institutions. Along with them, the delegation featured Directors of UniCredit Bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivan Vlaho and Dalibor Ćubela.

Representatives of the Italian Banking group expressed satisfaction with the results achieved by their Bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but stressed that there is always space for improving cooperation, and that  the delegation of the Bank would have several meetings with representatives of the economy sector and authorities in order to explore the potentials for further expansion of cooperation.

One of the topics was the macroeconomic environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where representatives of UniCredit Bank stressed that the model of monetary policy under the Currency Board arrangement has proven to be  a very useful one, because the foreign exchange risk has been eliminated from the operations. However, the Governor stressed the fact that despite the highly rated stability of the sector, in which the capitalization of banks is at the high 17%, the lending growth is very low and it amounts to around 4%. "It is not enough for some serious investment cycle. Banks hold close to one billion euros of excess reserves and it would be desirable to find a way to start an investment cycle that would result in new jobs ", said the Governor, recalling the worst macroeconomic indicator of Bosnia and Herzegovina - unemployment of 27.5 %. Representatives of UniCredit Bank stressed that there has been liquidity in the market and that there are the institutions willing to invest, but it is necessary to have the stability, and the constant one.

During the conversation, the high level of non-performing loans (NPL) was mentioned, which, on the level of the banking sector in the country, amounts to  14%. "The new banking law will facilitate resolution of this problem, and in the near future we expect a decrease of this percentage," the Governor pointed out.

At the end of the meeting, representatives of the UniCredit Group have reiterated their commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina market and announced new investments.

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