The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo announced that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission has concluded its review of Kosovo’s Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) programme with a positive assessment, highlighting reforms undertaken by the central bank and ongoing financial system stability. The IMF mission chief noted progress in advancing financial sector reforms, including internal institutional changes aimed at improving effectiveness, efficiency and transparency. The banking sector was assessed as liquid, well capitalised and profitable, with low levels of non-performing loans. Work is also progressing on developing and operationalising a macroprudential policy framework and strengthening crisis management arrangements. The mission highlighted steps towards integration with the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and development of a regional instant payments system (TIPS Clone), and linked these initiatives to safer and more affordable fast payments. It also cited improved financial inclusion, with increases in bank accounts, electronic money accounts and transactions through the Kosovo Interbank Payment System (KIPS), and noted that a newly launched platform for comparing financial products and services is expected to support financial education and transparency. The central bank is undergoing an IMF-led Central Bank Transparency Code assessment and a governance audit by a partner central bank. It also stated that all structural objectives and indicative targets applicable to the central bank under the IMF-supported programmes have been implemented, and that it remains open to considering new programmes with the IMF.

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