emotions. all said so far does not mean that the bnb has no intention to draw conclusions for improving the efficiency of the banking supervision. quite the opposite, the bnb has already undertaken serious steps in this direction. back in the summer we publicly announced a number of measures and actions for reviewing the supervisory framework and practices. i wish to remind you that as early as in july we sent an official letter to the eba inviting them to carry out an independent review of the quality, capacity, practices and procedures of the bnb ’ s banking supervision department. in august we sent another letter to the international monetary fund ( imf ) requesting them to organise a mission of the imf and world bank in bulgaria under the financial sector assessment program ( fsap ). on recommendation of the imf, world bank and eba, the james riddle ( “ jimmy ” ) hoffa ( 1913 – 1975 ), a famous american labour union leader who in the 1960s was charged with and then convicted of ties with organised crime, corruption and financial fraud. bis central bankers ’ speeches banking supervision department is now already working to assess the compliance of the supervisory practices in bulgaria with the “ basel core principles ” 2 for effective banking supervision as a first stage of the fsap. in addition, the bnb has already drawn up and proposed to the members of parliament a draft of amendments to the law on the bnb and the law on credit institutions, designed to rectify some weaknesses in the legal framework and to allow the bnb governing council to have more control over the banking supervision functions. because all of you here are well aware of the facts, but they were cunningly ignored and avoided by those who were attacking the bnb. since june 1997 by law the bnb governing council has been the body that adopts all banking regulations ( i. e. the ordinances defining the norms and requirements for banks ’ activities ). however, supervision is exclusively entrusted to the deputy governor in charge of the banking supervision department ( no matter what his or her name is ), who acts separately and independently. the crisis with ktb, and not only that one, clearly demonstrated that such immense concentration of power and responsibility in one official is a mistake of legislation. and we want to change this. because bearing responsibility is not possible without having the relevant powers. whatever happens ahead, the events in 2014 will not rewrite the bnb ’ s history of proven success in recent years. it is a fact that

nina stoyanova : adaptation and management of digital portfolios, digital banking services and client contacts in a pandemic crisis speech by ms nina stoyanova, deputy governor and head of the banking department of the bulgarian national bank, at the opening of the videoconference " adaptation and management of digital portfolios, digital banking services and client contacts in a pandemic crisis ", organized by the banker newspaper, 17 november 2020. * * * i would like to welcome you to the video conference on “ adaptation and management of digital portfolios, digital banking services and customer contacts in a pandemic crisis ", organized by the banker newspaper. in its “ strategy for the digitalisation of eu financial services ", the european commission states that the future of finance is digital. however, we can safely say that not only the future but also the present of finance is inextricably linked to digitalisation. this was clearly seen in the unprecedented situation caused by the coronavirus, in which it was through digital technologies that the continuity of the provision of financial services to consumers and businesses was ensured. the pandemic is about to permanently change our way of life, accelerating the processes of digitalization in all spheres of life – work, entertainment, shopping, administrative services. we are witnessing the emergence of new business models, services and solutions that create value, save time and effort, but at the same time are accompanied by new risks and challenges – both technological, this trend in the development of the financial sector is particularly visible in the dynamic and customer - oriented area of payments. undoubtedly, the catalyst for these processes is the european legislation in this area, namely the second payment services directive, known as psd2. as the main innovations in it we can highlight two aspects – opening access to payment accounts ( the so - called “ open banking ” ) and increasing the requirements for the security of electronic payments. these were the areas in which in 2020 the efforts and attention of both the business and the regulator continued to be focused. as part of the first aspect, the directive introduced two new types of payment services provided entirely on the internet – payment initiation and account information services, and regulated the activities of providers offering them. the provision of new services requires interaction between payment service providers who maintain customer accounts ( most often banks ) and the respective providers that offer new services. most payment service providers holding accounts in our market have chosen to achieve this interaction by creating special interfaces for automated access to their managed payment