dimiter kostov : the world of finance is becoming more it address by mr dimiter kostov, deputy governor of the bulgarian national bank, banking department and fiscal services department, before the participants in the 14th financial it forum “ the world of finance is becoming more it ”, sofia, 19 april 2012. * * * ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the bulgarian national bank, i have the honour to congratulate you with the opening of the 14th financial it forum. this forum has established itself as an annual opportunity to share experience and ideas, and to view the prospects opened to the financial sector by the information and communication technologies. these results are undoubtedly owing to the organizers of the event, but what is of no less importance is your interest to it. from the point of view of the business, times are still hard for financial intermediation. in the conditions of volatile international financial markets and an unstable economy, the bulgarian banking system is coping well with the challenges and remains stable. the levels of capital adequacy and liquidity remain high. irrespective of the increased impairment costs the banking system continues generating positive results. it is of no little importance, too, that in these conditions the banking system managed to preserve and even to slightly increase its loan portfolio. in the recent three years the economic activity in the country has contracted by about 3 percent, while the loan portfolio not only did not contract, but grew by about 8 percent. the results achieved indicate that in this difficult macroeconomic environment the banking system has not only preserved its reliability, but has continued to perform its economic role of financial intermediary. another positive trend is especially worth noting, prompted by this forum. banks are not focusing only on coping with current issues and obstacles. regardless of the difficulties, banks are putting much thought and effort into developing and implementing new business solutions and products based on the opportunities offered by the information and communications technologies. new solutions are sought not only in the area of good management of risks and business processes, but also in developing new services and sales channels. i would not allow myself to give examples from the experience of one or another bank. the forum will provide plenty of opportunities to find this out for yourselves. i will use as illustration of my words the payment infrastructure. the connectivity achieved by the operator of the main retail payment systems in this country in the past year, presently makes available to the bulgarian banks the so - called sepa connectivity to several thousand banks in the european union

the ecb exercises control over the implementation of all ssm guidelines and standards in the bnb ’ s work, including with regard to the supervisory review and evaluation process and on - site supervisions. the ecb is conferred specific direct powers towards less significant institutions, in relation to the process of license issuance and revocation, approvals of acquisition and disposal of classified holdings in credit institutions, the issuance of general recommendations, guidelines and instructions, planning and carrying out of on - site inspections, including assuming at any given point in time of direct supervision over less significant institutions. for the purposes of supervision of less significant banks, a structure has been set up with the ecb ’ s ssm, in which the bnb participates. within this structure, the issues of supervision over less significant institutions of the ssm participating member states are discussed. the participation in the single supervisory mechanism also includes providing the ecb with all the information needed for the performance of the ecb ’ s tasks, including information subject to banking and professional secrecy. the ecb collects fees for conducting its supervisory activities and this principle will accordingly apply to the banks in bulgaria. 2. participation in the single resolution mechanism the participation in the srm follows from the participation in the ssm. the srm extends to all banks that operate in the ssm participating member states and has as its objective the application of effective and uniform resolution rules and equal resolution financing conditions within the banking union. this function is carried out by a specialised eu agency – the single resolution board ( srb ), which performs its tasks and exercises its powers in close cooperation with the national resolution authorities. the srb is a collegiate body composed of permanent ( executive ) members and one member designated by each participating member state, representing its national resolution authorities. subject to the nature of the issues to be addressed and resolved, srb holds meetings in plenary session, executive session and extended executive session formats. the plenary session meetings are attended by the permanent members and all representatives of the participant member states. decisions in the plenary session are taken by a simple majority vote, each member having one voting right. the extended executive session meetings are attended by the srb permanent members and the representatives of the participating member states, where the banks, in respect of which the relevant decision is taken, are established. the decisions of the executive session, attended by the srb permanent members, are adopted by consensus and where this is not possible – by simple majority of the