Yesterday, the Central Bank, in cooperation with the German Development Bank (KfW Entwicklungsbank) and the European Fund for South East Europe  (EFSE) organized a conference titled "Socially responsible banking in BiH”. On this occasion, Mirela Salković, a ProCredit Bank Regional Manager, gave a presentation on socially responsible business of our Bank, as well as numerous activities referring to financial education that we have implemented so far. A special emphasis was placed at the financial education project of “How to talk to a bank?” and “How to plan a home budget?”

At the beginning of the conference, the participants were addressed by the High Representative and the EU Special Envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Inzko. "the financial representatives in BiH have shown responsibility at the time of crisis, but there is a lack of such responsibility in politics, and thus, the political leaders may learn something about it from the Central Bank of BiH, as this country also “desperately” needs a responsible approach out of the financial sector".  Inzko also called upon establishing of the banking supervision, and continuation of the reform, emphasizing that now is the right time for this, as BiH has succeeded in mitigation of the effects of the global crisis by a coordinated response.

At this gathering the representatives of the BiH financial sector, including the Minister of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Vrankić and the Governer of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kemal Kozarić, as well as donor agencies and the international financial institutions, as well as practitioners in the field of micro financing, discussed the importance of the promotion of socially irresponsible business practices at the financial sector in BiH and the SE European region as the key response to the financial crisis.

In his address, Minister Vrankić said that the socially responsible financing implies also building of financial structure that will strengthen the economic efficiency. " we are aware that the monetary and financial stability are a significant pre-condition for a successful economic policy. Only on such conditions can the total rating of the country be improved and the implementation of the state’s plans in the realization of significant developmental projects facilitated. Socially responsible financing has become a very important topic in the financial industry, particularly in light of recent turmoil that have hit the world financial markets caused mainly by the irresponsible banking practices”, Vrankić said. He emphasized that the local financial sector had remained stable for the past several years, but that BiH had to continues with the development of the financial market. Vrankić also said that BiH was not an over-indebted country, but that when it came to debit, the most important thing was to highlight why, and not how much money had been borrowed.

The Governor of the CBBiH, Kemal Kozarić, emphasized that the global financial crisis proved that the principle of responsible financing was not exactly sufficiently developed at banks, and clients as well, adding that we all need to ask ourselves how responsible we are and provide our contribution to more responsible financing and plan responsibly.

Also, it has been assessed that companies and retail clients currently have a much better access to financial services.