RS Supreme Court confirms – RS Banking Agency is illegally hiding data on the operations of Banka Srpska

The court said the timely release of data may have prompted the Agency to detect illegalities in the banks’ operations in time and thus prevent them from failing, both in the case of Banka Srpska and in the cases of Bobar Bank and Balkan Investment Bank.

Banja Luka, 5. July 2019 – If the data on the operations of Banka Srpska had not been hidden, omissions in the work of the RS Banking Agency might have been discovered in time and bankruptcy prevented, according to the verdict of the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska. The regulator did not have the right to hide this information from the public, citing business secrets without any arguments, concludes the Supreme Court, which ordered the Agency to immediately provide information to the public at the request of Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH).

The court said the timely release of data may have prompted the Agency to detect illegalities in the banks’ operations in time and thus prevent them from failing, both in the case of Banka Srpska and in the cases of Bobar Bank and Balkan Investment Bank.

TI BiH is still 2015. requested the Agency to submit independent audit reports of Banka Srpska for 2013. and 2014 year, as well as data on the measures taken by the Agency to eliminate irregularities in their work. These data would show whether the timely and in accordance with the law control was carried out, whether the conditions for the introduction of the interim administration were met earlier, and whether this could have prevented greater damage.

The court concludes that the Agency did not conduct a public interest test when it decided to hide this information from the public. Data have not been published until today, and Banka Srpske is still in 2016. went into liquidation. It is interesting that the Agency acted in the same way in the case of Bobar Bank by hiding reports and information on the work of the interim administration, although TI BiH has received several court rulings confirming that this information is illegally kept secret.

From the beginning, TI BiH insisted on the responsibilities of the RS Banking Agency as a regulatory body with broad powers, and the RS Supreme Court has now confirmed that timely sharing of information may have helped prevent preventive action. Hundreds of millions of marks were lost due to the collapse of banks in the Republic of Srpska, primarily taxpayers and public companies, and an indictment was filed against former director Slavica Injac due to suspicion of irregularities in the work of the Agency.

Press rls 7/5/2019

Judgment of the Supreme Court of RS TI BiH against the RS Banking Agency