HPB operating stably

Published: 6/6/2012

Although it is not the practice of the Croatian National Bank, for understandable reasons and in line with international practice, to disclose to the public the course and the findings of its supervisory activities, prompted by the article on Hrvatska poštanska banka (HPB), published on 6 June 2012 in a daily newspaper "business.hr", we find it necessary and justified to issue the following statement:

The Croatian National Bank monitors on an ongoing basis the business operations of all the banks operating in Croatia, by means of on-site or off-site examinations.

Hrvatska poštanska banka submitted its audited financial report for 2011 to the CNB within the legally prescribed time limit. The audit had been conducted by a certified audit firm, Deloitte. The key indicators contained in this report have been posted on the CNB web site (wwww.hnb.hr) where they are available to and can be accessed by all the interested parties.

According to all the relevant indicators, HPB is operating stably. The bank's capital adequacy at 31 December 2011 stood at 14.20%, or above the legally prescribed level, its total own funds stood at HRK 1.49bn while its total assets stood at HRK 16.4bn. After a new management board was appointed in this bank in 2009, a number of measures were taken towards stabilising its business operations and we can now say that HPB is a stable, safe and a professionally managed bank.

In accordance with the usual supervisory procedure and within the framework of regular on-site examination of banks, several banks, including HPB, have been subjected to supervision since mid-February.

Under the prescribed supervisory procedure, the draft report on on-site examination findings is submitted to the concerned bank which has the right to offer its explanations and comments within the prescribed time limit, which are then analysed in detail by the central bank. This procedure is currently underway.

Depending on the outcome of this procedure, the central bank decides on any possible measures that may be required for the bank to bring its operations in line with the applicable regulations.

Therefore, it is not acceptable to publicly disclose any documents pertaining to the field of supervision without permission from the CNB, even more so in cases where the documents in question are not final.