OREANDA-NEWS. October 23, 2009. 1. Permission to register an amendment to the Articles of Association of the credit union ”Vilniaus taupomoji kasa”

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania permitted the credit union ”Vilniaus taupomoji kasa ” to register an amendment to its Articles of Association in relation to the head office of the credit union, which was approved at the 30 March 2009 general shareholders meeting of the credit union.

2. Amendment to the Regulations on the Operation of TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS Payment System

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania made an amendment to the Regulations on the Operation of TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS Payment System, approved by the Board of the Bank of Lithuania on 18 October 2007.

The regulations were changed with regard to the changes of the TARGET2 Guidelines approved by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank on 17 September 2009.

Basically, these changes are associated with version 3.0 of the TARGET2 single-shared platform that will start operating as from 23 November 2009, and the regulation of enhancements implemented in this version, as well as with the specification of the oversight requirements to the place of external systems performing settlements in euro. Moreover, the amendments to TARGET2 Guidelines eliminate provisions related with the transitional period from the system TARGET to TARGET2. According to the TARGET2 Agreement signed by the Bank of Lithuania on 5 September 2008, all amendments to the TARGET2 Guidelines are applied also to non-euro area central banks that signed the Agreement, unless amendments to the TARGFET2 Guidelines indicate otherwise.

Apart from the Bank of Lithuania, several largest domestic commercial banks and AB Central Securities Depository of Lithuania participate in the payment system TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS.

3. Amendment to the Rules for Granting Intraday Credit in Euro

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania made amendments to the part of the Rules for Granting Credit in Euro determining the time for the repayment of intraday credits in euro issued by central banks of the non-euro area. It was established that the entities were obliged to repay intraday credits until 17 o’clock local time of the European Central Bank head office, i.e., Central European time, unless the system TARGET2 representatives  indicated some other time.

4. Systemically Important Payment Systems Assessment Methodology

The Board of the Bank of Lithuania resolved that when making the assessment of payment systems the Bank of Lithuania would be governed by the Terms of Reference for the Oversight Assessment of Euro Systemically and Prominently Important Payment Systems Against the Core Principles approved by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank in October 2007.

Also, it was decided to acknowledge the 23 September 2004 Resolution No. 160 ”Methods for the Assessment of Systemically Important Payment Systems” of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania invalid.

The Bank of Lithuania manages and operates two payment systems for settlements in litas:

the real-time gross settlement system LITAS-RLS and the retail payment system LITAS-MMS. Participants of these systems are the Bank of Lithuania, domestic commercial banks, foreign bank branches and the Lithuanian Central Credit Union. These systems are also available to financial brokerage companies and AB Central Securities Depository of Lithuania.

Two payment systems for settlements in euro TARGET2-LIETUVOS BANKAS and LITAS-PHA also function in Lithuania.

They enable domestic financial institutions to develop services for internal and international settlements in euro.