The National Bank will no longer act as the custodian for the private pension funds’ assets. Based on the two laws on fully funded pensions (mandatory and voluntary), this role will be transferred to the commercial banks.

BEA’s consultants, Dubravko Shtimac and Ira Stroili, both coming from the Croatian financial sector, are authors of an assessment study of the potentials of Macedonian banking sector to undertake the custodian position within the pension system. The results of the study were presented to the representatives of the banking and pension industry on February 21.

As the domestic financial market has grown over the past few years, the consultants are confident that Macedonian banks are already pursuing policies that will bring in decisive upgrading of the custodian service to the private pension funds. However, in order to provide highest possible safety for the pension assets, the banks will have to establish and develop modern custodian units based on the practices from the more developed economies.