Ms Sanja Tomičić, Executive Director of the International and European Relations Area of the Croatian National Bank, addressed the audience at the kick-off conference of the Twinning project "Support for regulation of the financial services in Montenegro", held in Podgorica on 19 November 2025. The project is financed by the European Union and its overall objective is to strengthen the efficiency, accountability and safety of the financial sector in Montenegro. The main beneficiary institutions are the Central Bank of Montenegro and the Insurance Supervision Agency.

The Twinning project is implemented by a consortium led by the Deutsche Bundesbank, in partnership with the Croatian National Bank (CNB), the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency and the National Bank of Slovakia. The project officially started in early September 2025, and is scheduled to last until the end of August 2027. The project budget is 1.8 million euros. It is planned that Croatian institutions carry out more than 50% of the project activities (the CNB about one third of all activities).

The main project activities will be related to the continued alignment with the EU acquis, as well as to strengthening supervisory practices and improving institutional and administrative capacities within the beneficiary institutions. Ultimately, the project aims to support Montenegro in fulfilling the conditions for closing negotiation chapters within the framework of Montenegro's EU accession process (4 – Free movement of capital, 9 – Financial services and 17 – Economic and monetary union).

The CNB is engaged in activities to further align the regulatory framework with the EU acquis and to strengthen the administrative capacities of the Central Bank of Montenegro in the areas related to credit institutions, payment systems, accounting and financial reporting, and financial accounts statistics.

In her speech, Ms Tomičić particularly emphasized the highly developed cooperation between the CNB and the Central Bank of Montenegro to date, as well as the long-standing successful cooperation between the consortium member institutions, which represents one of the key factors for the efficient implementation of the project and the achievement of the planned results.

Davor Lončarek

A round table on the project was also held as part of the conference, with Davor Lončarek, Chief Advisor at the International and European Relations Area and leader of one of the project components, representing the CNB. Mr Lončarek said that in previous activities related to the transfer of knowledge and experience, experts from the Central Bank of Montenegro had always demonstrated a high level of commitment, professionalism and competence, and that he was confident that the same level of quality and engagement would be present during the implementation of this project.