The Central Bank of Montenegro’s Council adopted a package of measures aimed at strengthening financial sector regulation and modernising payments infrastructure. The package includes draft amendments for non-bank financial service providers, draft amendments on financial conglomerates, and a decision raising the minimum value of payment transactions that must be processed through the real-time gross settlement system from EUR 1,000 to EUR 3,000 as part of preparations for a domestic instant payments system under the TIPS Clone project. For financial leasing, factoring, purchase of receivables, micro-lending and credit-guarantee operations, the draft amendments tighten requirements on corporate governance, internal controls and risk management. A key change is the introduction of a company for combined financial operations, which would be able, subject to Central Bank of Montenegro approval, to conduct financial leasing, factoring and micro-crediting simultaneously. That model would face stricter capital, organisational, staffing and technical requirements, including a minimum cash component of initial capital of EUR 2 million. Separately, the draft amendments on financial conglomerates are intended to fully align the framework with the relevant European Union directive, which the Central Bank of Montenegro described as one of the preconditions for closing Negotiating Chapter 9 on Financial Services. The Council also amended the decision on the Central Registry of Transaction Accounts and Deposits and Safe Deposit Boxes to align it with the rulebook on determining the tax identification number. The higher RTGS threshold is intended to support harmonisation of the small-value payment system and more efficient transaction processing, alongside banks' technical implementation for the planned instant payments system.
Central Bank of Montenegro 2026-05-11
Central Bank of Montenegro raises RTGS threshold to EUR 3000 for instant payments preparations and adopts non-bank finance law changes
The Central Bank of Montenegro’s Council adopted measures to strengthen regulation of non-bank financial service providers, align the framework for financial conglomerates with the relevant EU directive, and modernise payments infrastructure. The draft amendments introduce a new company for combined financial operations subject to stricter prudential requirements and raise the minimum value of transactions processed through the real-time gross settlement system from EUR 1,000 to EUR 3,000 in preparation for a domestic instant payments system under the TIPS Clone project.