loan, the prevalence of " stated - income " lending was a clear culprit. substantial anecdotal evidence indicates that failing to verify income invited fraud. moreover, when we looked at the loan - level data we saw a clear correlation between " low - doc " or " no - doc " lending and performance problems, particularly early payment defaults. that is why we have proposed to complement a broad requirement to assess repayment ability with a specific requirement to verify the income or assets a lender relies on to make a credit decision. we recognize that stated - income lending may have a proper place when not layered on top of too many other risks. indeed, stated income lending and " no / low - doc " lending are defining features of the alt - a market, which has long served borrowers with good credit scores who seek some underwriting flexibility. we would target the verification requirement to higher - priced loans, including the higher - priced end of the alt - a market, where the risks of stated - income lending could be layered on top of too many other risks. this targeting is intended to maintain consumer access to responsible credit. the proposal identifies standard documents that would be acceptable, such as w - 2 forms. it also allows, however, any third party documents that provide reasonably reliable evidence of income. this rule is meant to preserve consumer choice by allowing the market to identify credible nontraditional documentation of consumer income - - for example, check - cashing receipts. in that regard, the proposal responds to input we gathered through the hoepa hearing i chaired last june. several panelists spoke of the fact that some consumers may have access to only nonstandard documents and others, such as self - employed entrepreneurs, may have some difficulty documenting their income. to help ensure that the proposal preserves access to credit for the full range of consumers, we have sought public comment on this issue. escrows for taxes and insurance another part of our proposal for higher - priced loans - - a requirement to escrow taxes and insurance - - would also help ensure that borrowers can afford their payments. escrowing has become standard practice in the prime market, and the case for making it standard in the subprime market, too, appears compelling. consumers with shorter or weaker credit histories may be less likely to appreciate the sizable burden that taxes and insurance can add to the cost of homeownership, or more vulnerable to being misled by payment quotes that leave out these amounts

xml standard. payment service users will be relieved of the requirement to specify bic for these payments. small - value payment systems in euro must ensure that they are operationally compatible with other similar systems in the eu. at the end of 2015, in bulgaria the share of sepa credit transfers in the total number of customers ’ credit transfer orders in euro was 59 %, and the migration to the emv standard for bank payment cards and pos terminals is over 90 % and is nearly complete. • with effect from 1 february 2016, member states must remove settlement - based national reporting obligations on payment service providers for balance of payments statistics relating to payment transactions of their customers. soon the national assembly is going to pass amendments to the currency law, introduced with the law on consumers ’ real estate loans, and the related changes are going to be made to ordinance no. 27 on the balance of payment statistics. therefore, payment service providers will no longer be required, for the needs of the balance of payments statistics, to keep registers and provide the bnb with information on transactions and payments between residents and non - residents and on bis central bankers ’ speeches cross - border transfers of over bgn 100 000. we expect that these changes would be passed by the end of july this year. • in relation to the agreement reached between the mof, bnb and market participants, the bnb as the fiscal agent of the government works on a project for the technical implementation of direct connection of the government securities depository with the ebond system to the bloomberg professional platform and the system of the bulgarian stock exchange. thus, additional development and modernization of the bulgarian government securities market is expected to be achieved and its further integration into the european union ’ s single market to be encouraged. this will allow by the end of next year financial institutions to freely select the place where they trade in government securities issued in bulgaria, in compliance with the requirements under regulation 2015 / 61 concerning the assessment of liquid assets in the form of government securities. this would possibly provide the prerequisites for additional diversification of the investors in bulgarian government debt instruments. these changes are conceived in line with the debt management and financial markets security policy in the context of our future euro area membership and are necessitated by regulatory reforms at eu level. finally, i would like to mention a project successfully completed recently. on 31 may 2016 bulgaria subscribed to the special data dissemination standard plus of the international monetary fund ( imf ). bulgaria is the 11th