/ world today news/ BNB Governor Ivan Iskrov explained that the problem with the Corporate Commercial Bank is not related to banking supervision, but rather the restructuring of a large systemic bank. This is an attempt, and again quite naive, to ignore long-standing problems and start talking about KTB from the moment it was placed under special supervision.
We know what this same Iskrov was explaining just 2 months before this happened. He said that KTB was in very good condition and received permission to buy TB Victoria, at that time a branch of Credit Agricole. How then will the BNB and its Management Board make this decision? Do not misinterpret the work of all employees of the Central Bank! There are also many great professionals among them, but how did the Board of Directors make this decision, and then it turned out that KTB was in a very bad condition and, according to Iskrov, the credit files, etc., were missing? After that, the governor of the BNB tried to transfer the problem to his colleague from “Banking Supervision”, saying that he himself did not know anything and that was how the law was structured. They very quickly explained to him that this was a wrong position, I guess his legal advisers, and Iskrov did not repeat this position again.
Now the governor of the BNB is again trying to say that the problem is political and to transfer his responsibility, his and the people from the Board, to the politicians, because he is waiting for a political solution. So what is the Central Bank for? This is the main question that needs to be asked in order to get an adequate answer. The BNB has a “Banking Supervision” department, which must monitor the proper functioning of the banking system. How is it that for 10 years, the Bulgarian Financial Forum and other non-governmental organizations have said that the inspections of “Banking Supervision” are fictitious? We also wrote letters to Iskrov, in which we informed him about the inadequate checks of “Banking Supervision”, but he never considered it necessary to answer us. Now, suddenly it turns out that there were such gaps in the documentation of KTB. Therefore, the question of who and how will save KTB should not be discussed, but who allowed it to come to this point when the bank is placed under special supervision. Is there a guarantee that from now on the BNB will work adequately and will not allow a similar case with another bank? At the moment, with these confused explanations of the governor, we cannot in any way have confidence in the BNB and believe that it will work adequately.
I don’t have a deposit in KTB. Nor have I received a loan, subsidy or any other payment from the bank. Let all the so-called saviors who appear and ultimately want to push solutions to save KTB, and give a proposal, make this same declaration! Otherwise, without naming them, Iskrov mentioned that he had seen them on the morning TV shows, and at the same time he had read their names in the KTB documentation. In this regard, the governor of the BNB has some reason, but he is not right to try to transfer his responsibility to someone else, unnamed. In general, the politicians or the other rescuers who lined up and received subsidies from KTB, and now they want to save it or are looking for some way to devalue the loans they have to pay back.
Iskrov has some justification when he talks about the many steps that have been taken. He also makes a self-assessment of his team, saying that in the times of the great banking and financial crisis in the world, they managed to keep the Bulgarian banking system intact. So how did they do it? That’s the key question right now. They did it by passing such lobbying legislation that they shifted the risk and responsibility to the banks’ customers. And what happened? – We know how many suicides there were among debtors and bank victims, and now we were getting to the point where we started losing banks as well.
“He who sacrifices freedom for security ends up losing both,” says a maxim. It is the same with banks and customers. – Whoever sacrifices customers for the sake of the banks ends up burying both the people and the banks. I don’t know now with what kind of eyes Iskrov stands in front of the camera to explain that he saved the banking system. Perhaps he should face the family of the murdered banker in Burgas and the other suicide victims of the bank racket and explain to them how he saved the banking system. The governor of the BNB cannot bring these people back, but now it will be most likely that one bank will also have to be closed, because I already feel this situation in the country. And with this talk from Iskrov, who are these investors who will come to such an uncertain situation and invest in the country?
There is also something else that needs to be said, and the governor of the BNB does not dwell on this issue at all. The BNB could have said that until the final decision of the KTB case, no abuse of the bank’s assets will be allowed, because I don’t know how true this thing is, but I read and listen to the opinions of people who obviously use some inside information that a part of KTB’s assets were sold or converted. It is enough to look at the public records to see what it is about, because as an old custom, while some are trying to save the bank, others are trying to save only their assets. This is often found in our geographical latitudes – to apply the law with a double standard, to help some at the expense of others. This has happened many times in our recent history. Therefore, the BNB and all governors are accountable to the public.
We can observe some of the so-called saviors, and they are already many, how they constantly change their opinions. This is most likely related to certain expectations and decisions made regarding their assets. From this point of view, I think it is quite reasonable and fair for the people who give opinions and recommendations for the eventual rescue of KTB to declare their personal interest.
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Georgi Atanasov, Bulgarian Financial Forum.
#Iskrov #shift #responsibility
