Decisions adopted by the Governing Board on the occasion of its 282nd regular meeting on 8 January 2004

01/08/2004 / Press release

Important matters dealt with and decisions taken by the Bank of Slovenia Governing Board on its 282nd regular meeting:
The Board reduced the interest rates of the Bank of Slovenia instruments by 25 basis points, as follows:

overnight deposit facility: from 3.00% to 2.75%
60-day Tolar bills: from 6.00% to 5.75%
270-day Tolar bills: from 6.75%% to 6.50%
buy/sell FX swap: from 3.00% to 2.75%
sell/buy FX swap: from 1.50% to 1.25%
lombard loan: from 7.25% to 7.00% p.a.

The new interest rates will take effect from 9 January 2004.

The Governing Board has adopted a Decision on Mandatory Reserves, introducing a new partial adjustment to the minimum reserve system of the European Central Bank. According to the decision, a maintenance period (from the 27th day of the current month to the 26th day of the following month) will start after the end of the calculation period (from the 22nd of the previous month to the 21st of the current month). Banks will therefore have information about the calculated reserve requirement over the whole maintenance period and not only in the last five days of the period. The Bank of Slovenia will remunerate the average amount (instead of the daily amount) on accounts with the Bank of Slovenia during the maintenance period, but only up to the amount of the required reserves calculated in the current calculation period. The rate of remuneration remains unchanged: 1% p.a. The changed method of the remuneration will have favourable effects for banks (estimation of SIT 60-70 million p.a.). Institutions liable to reserve requirements according to the decision are banks, savings banks and savings and loan undertakings established in the Republic of Slovenia, branches of foreign banks in the Republic of Slovenia and branches of the EU Member State banks in the Republic of Slovenia. The decision shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the Republic of Slovenia. Individual changes will enter into force step by step.

The Board decided to withdraw the repurchase facility for bills denominated in foreign currency due to the fact that there had hardly been any demand for quite some time. The facility can be reactivated in case of demand.

Pursuant to Article 12 of the Banking Act the Board adopted the Decision on Adjustment of the Minimum Initial Capital Required (stipulated in the second paragraph of Article 15 for banks and in article 229 of the same Act for savings-banks). According to Article 12, the adjustment needs to take place when the Bank of Slovenia SIT/Euro exchange rate has changed for more than 10%. The adjusted minimum initial capital required of a bank amounts to SIT 1,220,000,000.00 and that of a savings-bank to SIT245,000,000.00. The decision takes effect upon its publication in the Official Journal of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Board has adopted the Decision on Amendment of the Decision on the Schedule of Tariff for Remuneration of Priced Services Provided by the Bank of Slovenia. The Bank of Slovenia manages the Real-time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and the Giro Clearing net settlement system. For provision of services of both systems the Bank of Slovenia only charges a simple linear fee for each transaction (there are no entry fees, nor yearly membership fees charged), pursuing the cost recovery principles, and a special fee for the Giro Clearing net positions settlement. According to the decision taken, considering the expected costs of operation of both systems and expected volume of payments in 2004, fees in both systems will be reduced as follow:, in the RTGS from SIT 260 to SIT 220 and in the Giro Clearing from SIT 8 to SIT 5; the fee for the Giro Clearing net positions settlement will be reduced from SIT 320 to SIT 210 and the fee for the Mastercard International Clearing net positions settlement from SIT 700 to SIT 460. This Decision shall enter into force on 1 February 2004.