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

country worldwide to adhere to this highest tier international data dissemination standard. adhering to this standard is the result of the joint efforts of the bulgarian national bank as coordinator for bulgaria, the national statistical institute, and the ministry of finance. the bnb oversaw the adherence efforts and was responsible for developing the so - called national summary data page, which is already available on the bnb website. the greater part of the new statistical indicators included in the standard are compiled by the bnb. adhering to the special data dissemination standard – plus indicates to the local and foreign investors, the rating agencies, the international financial institutions and all other users that the quality and reliability of the statistical data that are used to make important macroeconomic and business decisions are up to the highest international statistical requirements. in conclusion it could be stated that the country has achieved considerable progress in the implementation of financial and payment services innovations. of course there are still a lot of challenges in relation to the requirements of information and communications technologies development, and the enhanced requirements to the payment infrastructure and payment instruments related to the single euro payments area. in our work we will keep striving towards these standards and best practices. i wish successful, interesting and constructive work to the forum participants! bis central bankers ’ speeches