The Central Bank of the Republic of San Marino

The Central Bank of the Republic of San Marino (CBSM) is a private legal entity with public and private shareholders.
Based on its Articles of Association the CBSM has the functions of:

  • Supervisory Authority of the banking, financial and insurance sector, and of guarantor of the protection of the investors;
  • managing, governing and supervising the payment system;
  • managing the Treasury and State Tax Department services on behalf of the State, Public Authorities and Autonomous Undertakings;
  • depositary of the financial resources of the State and Entities and Authorities of the Extended Public Sector;
  • institutional reference point for International Organisations, central banks, foreign financial supervisory authorities and similar entities;
  • processing and publishing statistics on the entities it supervises and their activities;
  • State agent for the management of national debt certificates;
  • consultancy services to the State as regards to economic issues, specifically with reference to the financial sector and the public finance.

The main regulatory sources of reference for the activities of the CBSM, are the law establishing it (Law No. 96 of 29 June 2005 – Central Bank Statutes) and the Law on Companies and on Banking, Financial and Insurance Services (Law No. 165 of 17 November 2005). The current structure of the CBSM is the result of the merger between the Istituto di Credito Sammarinese and the Inspectorate for Credit and Currencies, launched with the Law No. 86 of 27 June 2003, and concluded in 2005 with Law No. 96/2005 (CBSM Statutes).  The merger process led to the unification into a single entity (CBSM) of the functions previously assigned to the two institutions. Afterwards, by virtue of additional laws, the functions assigned to the Central Bank have been extended consistently with the general statutory provisions.

The major shareholder of CBSM is the State (which is required by law to keep a majority shareholding); a minority interest in the capital of the Bank may be held also by the banks, financial companies and insurance enterprises of San Marino. As of today, the endowment fund is subdivided as follows:

 

State (Republic of San Marino - Most Excellent Chamber:
 67%
Cassa di Risparmio della Repubblica di San Marino S.p.A.: 16%
Banca di San Marino S.p.A.: 6%
Banca Agricola Commerciale Istituto Bancario Sammarinese S.p.A.: 5%
Banca Nazionale Sammarinese S.p.A.: 5%
Banca Sammarinese di Investimento S.p.A: 1%

 

The financial independence of the Central Bank is ensured by three main items:

  • the return on financial investments (net of costs incurred for the deposits received by PAs and banks);
  • a lump sum compensation for the services rendered to the State and the PAs in general. With the most recent agreement, the Central Bank and the State Congress agreed to reduce such compensation by  26.3%;
  • the repayment by the supervised entities of the charges incurred by the CBSM in performing its supervisory activity. Up to date, the Bank charged only part of the costs incurred, in order not to penalise excessively the supervised entities.

Despite the complexity and extension of its functions, the Bank continues to pursue operating efficiency and cost saving, in compliance with the principles of its Statutes e of the Code of Conduct.



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