Information on the process of integration of financial market supervision

On 2 February 2006 the Senate approved the proposal of the Ministry of Finance and the Czech National Bank to integrate financial market supervision into the Czech National Bank. Provided that the proposal is signed by the President, the Czech Republic will have an integrated financial market supervisory authority as from 1 April 2006. On this date, the CNB will take over the activities of the Czech Securities Commission (CSC), the Office for Supervision of Insurance and Supplementary Pension Insurance and the Office for Supervision of Credit Unions, which will thereby cease to exist. The merger will greatly increase the effectiveness of supervision and at the same time reduce the costs related to its performance.

The CNB, the CSC and the Ministry of Finance are working together closely on the integration process. To ensure that it proceeds smoothly, the CNB Bank Board decided on 22 August 2005 to establish a project team and an implementation team. In their work, the teams are focusing primarily on the logistics of the entire project (functioning of information systems, transfer of staff and property). The aim is to ensure that the integration of the regulators proceeds smoothly and without any negative effects on the operations of the relevant institutions.

Preparations for the integration

At the end of 2005, the CNB started relocating about 360 staff within its headquarters. This process is now almost complete. The location of the new staff from the individual institutions has been prepared and approved.

At present, the implementation team is dealing chiefly with property and operational matters. Owing to the incorporation of the CSC and Finance Ministry information systems into the CNB's systems, those systems used by the CSC and the Finance Ministry have been mapped and are now undergoing testing. Functionality of the information systems will be ensured before 1 April 2006. The preparations for taking over archives and documentation are coming to an end, and technical and security issues are being addressed.

Duplications in regulatory activities are meanwhile being identified in detail. This will result in the elimination of duplicate activities and the gradual adjustment of regulatory reporting. The planned changes should generate cost savings for the supervisor and for the regulated institutions.

Information on the process of integration of financial market supervision - 14 December 2005