Responding to the information that small banks' depositors have been given "well-meaning" advice to leave the financial institutions they have been cooperating with, the Croatian National Bank considers it necessary to reiterate the following points:

Since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, the CNB has further strengthened bank supervision and implemented a series of measures to maintain good liquidity and preserve the stability of the Croatian banking system. Within this, special attention has been given to monitoring that the 12 percent minimum required capital adequacy ratio is maintained, which means that at any given time banks have sufficient own funds to meet all their liabilities in an orderly manner. The CNB therefore intensifies supervision as soon as it notices that a bank approaches the required rate, warning banks in due time to implement measures to ensure the stability of their future operations.

Such an approach led to the banks' average capital adequacy ratio in Croatia standing at a high 19.27 percent at end-September this year, which is more than double the minimum required capital adequacy ratio of EU countries. This figure alone confirms that the stability of the Croatian banking system has been preserved despite the crisis environment, and that Credo banka is a special case, its conditions bearing no comparison with the conditions in other banks, including the smaller ones. The CNB, as always, stands ready to provide the required liquidity support to any bank which operates in compliance with regulations and whose management and supervisory boards make all due efforts to ensure its sound and stable operation.

Accordingly, there is no reason that some banks' depositors, either following the mentioned "advice" or under the influence of unsubstantiated sensationalism, consider the withdrawal of their funds and early termination of long-term deposit agreements. By taking such actions, they could inflict damage to themselves and consequently, due to the aggravated conditions in the banks they would withdraw from, especially if these are large government-owned depositors, to the wider environment.