The Bank of Slovenia has extended all of the ECB measures to less significant banks and savings banks

The Governing Council of the ECB, among them Boštjan Vasle, Governor of the Bank of Slovenia, have over recent days reaffirmed their commitment to doing everything possible to help citizens face the current uncertain situation. Additional measures were taken to support families, businesses and governments.

Measures to this end were also taken in the area of banking supervision, to mitigate the impact on banks from the liquidity difficulties of their customers. The measures relate directly to banks under the ECB’s overall supervision. To ensure equal treatment for all banks in the Slovenian banking system, the Bank of Slovenia has extended all of the ECB measures to less significant banks and savings banks under the Bank of Slovenia’s direct supervision.

Over the last few days the Governing Council of the ECB has approved an additional package of response measures to support families, businesses and governments. An additional envelope of asset purchases of EUR 120 billion within existing programmes was approved in the first phase, while loans to provide liquidity to banks were increased and expanded. The second phase saw the approval of a new pandemic emergency purchase programme with an envelope of EUR 750 billion until the end of the year.

Measures to prevent a deterioration in the banking system

Alongside the packages of monetary policy measures, the Governing Council and Supervisory Board of the ECB also approved a new package of measures within its supervisory powers over the banking system. According to the Bank of Slovenia, the key objective of the measures is to coordinate the effects of the actions taken by governments and other national institutions. We are thus allowing banks to more effectively address the problems caused by an inability to service debt among the hardest-hit segments of society. At the same time we are preventing their situation from being exacerbated as a result of these operations.

The measures adopted at ECB level apply to all banks where supervision is conducted by the ECB (a list of Slovenian banks in this category is available on the website). To ensure equal treatment for all banks in the Slovenian banking system, the Bank of Slovenia has extended all of the aforementioned measures to less significant institutions under the Bank of Slovenia’s direct supervision.

The measures primarily relate to granting banks extra flexibility in the prudential treatment of loans secured by government guarantees and SID banka guarantees. We are also deferring certain deadlines for supervisory activities deemed less important at this moment. Another important element of the measures is capital relief, as a result of which banks in Slovenia will be able to offer businesses and households a total of up to EUR 3.3 billion in additional credit support.