greek authorities will soon need to decide on new, more systemic tools that would complement the banks ’ own efforts. the bank of greece has for quite some time now proposed a systemic solution, which provides for the transfer to special purpose vehicles ( spvs ) of a significant part of npls along with part of the deferred tax credits ( dtcs ) on banks ’ balance sheets. this solution has the advantage of addressing two very serious problems at the same time : npls and dtcs. the government and the bank of greece are working together towards the submission for approval of such systemic solutions by the competent european authorities and their ultimate adoption with a view to successfully tackling the npl problem. furthermore, as mentioned previously, the new legislation on primary residence protection is a first step towards an overhaul of the personal insolvency framework in pursuit of a holistic solution to the problem. the implementation of the new framework, which incorporates specific eligibility criteria and safeguards, aims to protect the more vulnerable social groups, to avoid creating moral hazard at the expense of non - delinquent borrowers and to ensure that the impact on bank capital is manageable. private insurance undertakings as a consequence of solvency ii, the greek private insurance market matured further in 2018, with improvements in governance structures and human resources. risk and solvency assessment capabilities were also improved, with a view to better capital and risk management and more effective protection of policy - holders. in 2018, insurers continued their efforts to reduce the long - term guarantees embedded in their products. in this context, the time horizon of coverages has been reduced, and the financial guarantees offered reflect more accurately the prevailing economic conditions. these practices have had a positive impact on the undertakings themselves, by enhancing their solvency position, and on policy - holders, by ensuring lower insurance costs and better quality of insurance products. nevertheless, insurance undertakings must take care not to lose their long - term perspective. in the life insurance sector, insurance undertakings are increasingly designing and providing 4 / 8 bis central bankers'speeches insurance - based investment products. this business strategy supports the financial strength of insurance undertakings, while also enabling them to offer higher returns to policy - holders, although exposing them to higher investment risks. against this background, it is of crucial importance that insurers provide accurate and relevant information to prospective customers, enabling them to understand the risks involved and avoid losses. in addition, with law 4583 / 2018,

be provided for denmark if the country requests them. given the absence of such a request, the ecb ’ s 2020 convergence report examines the following countries : bulgaria, the czech republic, croatia, hungary, poland, romania and sweden. 6 article 140 of the treaty on the functioning of the european union says that at least once every two years, or at the request of an eu member state with a derogation, the ecb and the european commission must report to the eu council “ on the progress made by the member states with a derogation in fulfilling their obligations regarding the achievement of economic and monetary union ”. 7 the main general features of erm ii are : ( i ) a central exchange rate against the euro ; ( ii ) a fluctuation band with a standard width of ±15 % around the central rate ; ( iii ) central bank interventions at the margins of the agreed fluctuation band ; ( iv ) the availability of very short - term financing from participating national central banks. the participating national central banks can, however, unilaterally commit to tighter exchange rate regimes than those provided for by erm ii, without imposing any additional obligations on the ecb. this is now the case with bulgaria, which has joined erm ii with its currency board, like estonia and lithuania did in the past. 8 estonia, lithuania and slovenia joined erm ii in 2004 ; cyprus, latvia, malta and slovakia joined erm ii in 2005. 9 for the ecb, these are banking supervision and macroprudential policy. the ecb ’ s assessment of the erm ii prior commitments on the macroprudential toolkit is available on the ecb ’ s website. see “ ecb assessment report on completion of the commitments made by the republic of bulgaria on the macroprudential toolkit ” and “ ecb assessment report on completion of the commitments made by the republic of croatia on the macroprudential toolkit ”, ecb, 10 july 2020. 10 for bulgaria, these policies include enhancing non - banking supervision, improving the insolvency framework and strengthening the governance of state - owned enterprises. for croatia, they include reforming the collection and production of national statistics, enhancing public sector governance and reducing the administrative and financial burden. the european commission ’ s assessment of the erm ii prior commitments on structural policies is available on its website. see “ letter by executive - vice president dombrovskis and commissioner gentiloni to