European System of Central Banks

The 20 BGN banknotes from 2005 will be removed from circulation from February 1 and will no longer be legal tender. After this date, banknotes with a nominal value of BGN 20, 2005 issue, will be exchanged at the cash desks of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) at nominal value without limit of quantity, without fee and without deadline for exchange.

European Central Bank (ECB) chief Christine Lagarde has said that interest rates need to continue rising at a "steady pace" in order to avoid inflation becoming entrenched.

While energy prices have recently come down, Lagarde said underlying inflation continues to rise.

Greek banks will undergo capital stress tests in order to get the green light from the European Central Bank's supervisory mechanism to distribute dividends to shareholders, the head of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) board, Andrea Enria, told Kathimerini.

Bank accounts will automatically be converted from BGN to EUR on the day of the introduction of the single European currency, emphasized the Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Dimitar Radev in his publication in the bulletin of the Association of Commercial Banks.

Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras met on Thursday with Andrea Enria, chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank's Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).

Enria met with Stournaras and other members of the Bank of Greece's administration, as well as with representatives of the managements of Greek banks and the Hellenic Bank Association.

Cyprus banks have made progress, but more must be done for them to be on a par with other banks in the European Union and at their current level of development, according to a report by the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) of the European Central Bank.

The de-escalation of eurozone inflation, which fell to 9.2% in December, is not expected to convince the European Central Bank to ease its aggressiveness in interest rate hikes, at least for now, analysts note to Kathimerini, a mistake in policy and also its predictions - which have often proven wrong - not ruled out, as it risks acting excessively in its struggle to tame high prices.

Bank of Greece governor Yannis Stournaras sees inflation in the Eurozone peaking this year, predicting a further decline in 2023 before retreating to near the ECB's 2% target next year. As he characteristically stated: "I am optimistic that the monster of inflation will have been defeated by the end of 2024″

Finding the right monetary policy response to tackle soaring inflation is an "art," European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has said.

"It is not a science," Lagarde said on June 29 at a panel at the ECB's annual central banking conference in Portugal.
"What we are doing there is an element of art," she said.

The European Central Bank (ECB) is set to draw a line under its massive bond-buying stimulus program at a meeting on June 9, as inflation in the eurozone soars to all-time highs.