SPI Committee

Date

Sent to

Title

Brief

September 13, 2007

Ministry of Justice

Referring to the law proposal for amending the anti-money laundering regulation posted on the Ministry of Justice’s website for public consultations, SPI Committee outlined the broad consensus reached on SPI law amendment proposal and the impact of the regulatory framework on banks’ costs. SPI Committee proposes that the Ministry representatives involved in this initiative work with the Project Working Group in order to identify the best solutions and elaborate the needed impact assessment.

July 30, 2007

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development

Proposals for the re-launch of the warrants-deposit certificates system

SPI Committee expresses its appreciation for the active participation of the Ministry’s representatives in the meeting with the project working group members. SPI Committee sends the PWG proposals for re-launching the warrants-deposit certificates together with an implementation plan.

July 25, 2007

Project Owner, “Stress Test Methodology for Households and Firms” Project

SPI project referring to stress testing methodology

SPI Committee notices the slow progress recorded from the launch of this project. Taking into account the project importance, SPI Committee proposes a roundtable with the bank representatives to be organized in order to share the experience and recommendations of the central bank on this issue.

July 25, 2007

Project Working Group, “Rural lending” Project

SPI Committee expresses its satisfaction for the activity and the results of the Project Working Group meetings. SPI Committee mentions that all the proposals and specific recommendations have been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and asks PWG members to continue supporting this initiative in its following implementation steps.

July 25, 2007

Ministry of Justice

The support of the Ministry of Justice for promoting the law amendment proposals prepared within SPI Romania.

SPI Committee asks the Ministry of Justice to support the promotion of present and future law amendment proposals and to appoint a contact person from the Ministry in order to facilitate the cooperation among stakeholders.

July 25, 2007

Project Owner, “Law on Bank Guarantees” Project

SPI project referring to the law on bank guarantees

SPI Committee encourages the speed up of the Project Working Group actions to elaborate law proposals on bank guarantees by the end of 2007.

July 25, 2007

Project Working Group, “IFRS Loan Loss Provisioning” Project

SPI Committee expresses its satisfaction towards the activity and the results of the Project Working Group meetings. In order to secure a better implementation of the PWG proposal, SPI Committee recommends PWG to expand their accumulated experience towards the preparation of the NBR prudential norms and to assess the impact so as to support MEF decision making.

July 25, 2007

Project Owner,
“Rating Agency Development” Project

SPI project regarding the development of rating agencies.

SPI Committee encourages the speed up of the Project Working Group actions in order to identify legislative and institutional solutions that could be favorable to the development of rating agencies.

July 25, 2007

Project Owner, “Consumer Education” Project

SPI project regarding the improvement of consumer financial literacy

SPI Committee encourages the speed up of the Project Working Group actions and recommends that the national strategy for promoting consumer financial literacy involving all relevant institutions (including the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth) be ready by the end of 2007.

July, 2007

Council of Mediation,
Ministry of Justice

Setting up the Bank Ombudsman in Romania

SPI Committee presents to the Mediation Council the RBA initiative of setting up a Bank Ombudsman. According to the law, the bank ombudsman and its deputy should be named from a list of mediators authorized by the Mediation Council, by August 2007. Therefore, SPI Committee kindly asks the Mediation Council to confirm their support for this initiative and to communicate an estimated timeframe for completing the list of authorized mediators.

July 12, 2007

Ministry of Finance, Association of Serbian Banks

Modernization of South-East European Financial Sector

SPI Committee salutes the meeting of the SPI Secretariat and Head of Convergence with the representatives of the Serbian MF and Association of Serbian Banks and welcomes the possibility of creating a SPI structure in Serbia. SPI Committee stands ready to provide the Serbian counterparts with any further support in this respect.

June 13, 2007

Ministry of Economy and Finance, Italy
The World Bank Group, USA

SPI Romania and Convergence Program

SPI Committee expresses its gratitude for the managerial and financial assistance offered by the WB and the Italian MEF in setting up SPI Romania and presents its main first achievements.
From the point were the assistance will be ceased, SPI Committee states that SPI Romania will continue its activities through RBI, and also expresses its availability and willingness to further contribute to other Convergence Program activities in the South-East Europe.

April 27, 2007

Project Working Group, ”Expansion of Positive Credit Information Sharing”

SPI Committee expresses its satisfaction towards the activity and the results of the Project Working Group meetings. In SPI Committee’s opinion, BCR’s and BRG – GSG’s commitment to report positive credit information by the end of 2007 represents a successful ending of this project. As next actions, SPI Committee recommends that the PWG should continue its efforts with the National Authority for Supervising Private Data Processing to finding the appropriate solutions for all stakeholders.

April 27, 2007

Project Working Group, ”Bank Ombudsman”

SPI Committee expresses its satisfaction towards the activity and the results of the Project Working Group meetings and recommends PWG to expand its accumulated experience in preparing the necessary documentation for setting up of a Bank Ombudsman in Romania.

April 27, 2007

Ministry of Economy and Finance

Electronic Processing of Debit Instruments

SPI Committee forwards the law amendment proposal regarding the electronic processing of debit instruments, asking MEF to undertake the legislative initiative.

April 27, 2007

Project Working Group on „Electronic processing of debit instruments”.

SPI Committee expresses its satisfaction for the Project Working Group activity regarding ‘Electronic processing of debit instruments’ and encourages the PWG members to expand their activity on drafting amendment proposals for secondary regulations.

April 27, 2007

Project Working Group on
“Anti-money laundering law”

SPI Committee expresses its satisfaction for the Project Working Group activity on ‘Anti-money laundering law’ and asks their support during the promotion process.

January 16, 2007

BCR, BRD - GSG

Project “Expansion of positive credit information sharing”

SPI Committee presents its initiative to promote the positive credit information sharing through local credit bureaus and asks Romanian Commercial Bank and Romanian Development Bank S.A. – GSG to confirm whether they plan to implement positive credit information sharing in 2007.

January 10, 2007

Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs

Project “Law on goods safeguard, values and persons protection”

SPI Committee expresses its appreciation for the good cooperation between SPI Romania and the Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs and brings to the attention of the Ministry a new law proposal regarding the goods’ safeguard, values and persons protection.

January 9, 2007

Institute of International Finance, Washington

SPI Committee expresses its interest in a recent IIF issue (“Proposal for Strategic Dialogue on Effective Regulation”). SPI Committee briefly introduces the aim, partners and activities of SPI Romania, which it considers a valuable good-practice example and expresses its interest in a possible experience sharing with IIF.

November 3, 2006

National Authority for Supervising Private Data Processing

Public consultations regarding the decision proposal with respect to private data processing in evidence systems as credit bureaus.

SPI Committee draws attention on certain provisions of the decision proposal that might have serious negative consequences on the access of Romanian consumers to financial services and asks for a dialogue in reconsidering the project.