The Sammarinese Monetary Authority was established at the same time as the Central Bank of the Republic of San Marino (Law no. 96 dated 29 June 2005), which, since its establishment, had been institutionally authorized to carry out cross border transactions and to operate in the foreign exchange market, with the authority and in the forms set forth in the current banking laws and regulations.
Art. 36 of Law no. 96 dated 29 June 2005 provides that, for the purpose of pursuing its objectives, the Central Bank must be vested with the following functions:
By means of Law no. 41 dated 25 April 1996 "Currency Regulations" the Central Bank of the Republic of San Marino may authorise the credit institutions of San Marino to carry out cross border and/or foreign exchange transactions, establishing limits and conditions thereof; this Law vests the Central Bank with the control and supervision on the currency activities carried out by the banking intermediaries. Currently, there are 8 qualified banks out of a total of 9 banks that operate in the territory of the Republic of San Marino.
In carrying out its function, the Central Bank may act on its own initiative or upon request or recommendation of the Committee for Credit and Savings, and has the power to promote investigations, issue instructions and adopt immediately enforceable rules. The Supervisory Authority is required to notify the Committee for Credit and Savings of any currency violations detected, and may impose sanctions for the administrative offences ascertained.
On March 27th 2012, the Republic of San Marino signed the Monetary Agreement with the European Union, which provides the right to use the euro as official currency, in accordance with the Regulation (EC) No. 1103/97 of the Council of June 17th 1997 and the Regulation (EC) No. 974/98 of May 3rd 1998.