2003-09-11
1) The Board approved the Draft Law of the Republic of Lithuania of the Law on the Supplements and Amendments to the Law on the Bank of Lithuania. It also decided to address the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Lithuania with a request to submit the Draft Law to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, which is entrusted with the right to initiate legislation.
The aim of the Draft Law supplements and amendments is to harmonize the regulation of the BoL activities with legal acts of the European Union (EU) and ensure the application of these EU legal acts in the legal system of Lithuania, when the BoL becomes an integral part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB).
Key supplements and amendments of the Draft Law are associated with the BoL recognition as an integral part of the ESCB, harmonization of its primary objective with the ESCB standards, more detailed definition of the central bank competence and independence, comprehensive regulation of credit limits, etc.
The Draft Law gives a different primary objective of the Bank of Lithuania-"to maintain price stability" instead of " to seek price stability"( in the present Law).
The supplements and amendments presented in the Draft Law ensure the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community - when exercising the powers and carrying out the tasks and duties, neither central banks nor any member of their decision making bodies shall seek or take instructions from any government of a Member State or any other body.
Regarding the requirement given in the 2002 ECB Report on the Status of legal preparation of accession countries in the areas of Community law of concern to the Eurosystem that board members of a central bank may work only in a central bank, changes related thereto were made and presented in the Draft Law. It foresees to reduce the number of Deputy Chairpersons from three in the present Law to 2 in the new one, and the number of the Members of the Board from 11 to 7.
The Bank of Lithuania capital issues are regulated in the Draft Law in a new light. The new law establishes the capital base approximation with the level of the NCBs participating in the Eurosystem.
The Draft Law has been worked out on the basis of consultations with the ECB experts.
2) Decided to allow the Joint-Stock Company Bank " Snoras" to register amendments to its Statute.
These amendments are related to the introduction of new operations in the bank ? purchase and sale of precious metals, and redistribution of functions of some structural units of the bank.
Due to the addition of these operations in the Statute, the earlier issued license restricting purchase and sale of precious metals was changed to the one entrusting the right to engage the bank in all operations provided for in the Law on Commercial Banks of Lithuania and the bank Statute.
3) Allowed the Joint-Stock Company PAREX BANK to register the amendment to its Statute.
The Statute amendment was done because of the change of the number of the Board Members (five instead of three).
4) Allowed the Medical Credit Union to register amendments to its Statute.
The Statute amendments are associated with the definition of new posts and supplements for target loans.
5) Approved the Policy of the Maintenance of Final Payments and Securities Settlement Systems.
The Policy defines the BoL role in the maintenance of payments and securities settlement systems. The document has been worked out with regard to the fact that after the adoption of the amendments to the Law on the Bank of Lithuania and the Law on Final Payments and Securities Settlements, the BoL functions in the area of payments and securities settlement systems expanded. The maintenance of the BoL payment system in the course of its integration into the EU payment systems has to be highly ensured, and this stands for another factor that determined the preparation of this Policy.