Who is behind the pressure on the FBiH Banking Agency?

The Banking Agency of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is accused of illegal employment and concealment of employee salaries.

There is no information that law enforcement institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina are conducting any investigation into potential illegal activities within the Agency. The increasingly frequent pressures are coming from media outlets close to certain political parties in the country.

The FBiH Banking Agency is an important corrective institution in the Federation. It has insight into the most serious financial flows: all transactions that take place in the Federation, it can react to uncovered bank loans, it has insight into privatization transactions... The Agency has other responsibilities as well. It submits its work reports to the Parliament of the Federation of BiH through the Government of the Federation of BiH.

Could the increasingly frequent problematization of the Agency's work be related to privatization flows in the country? More precisely, to the sale of the Sarajevo Tobacco Factory. The public has never received comprehensive, complete, and precise information on how the sale of the government's stake in FDS to the international company BAT was carried out. The Banking Agency has data on all financial flows from this sale, which could lead to one of the largest post-war privatization scandals in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Do the unfounded accusations against the Agency have connections precisely with the sale of government shares in FDS?

The example of the Banking Agency of the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina best illustrates how important a strong, credible, banking supervision agency without political influence is. If they had acted without political mentorship, they would have warned in time about the suspicious operations of three banks in RS, the closure of which has seriously damaged the financial stability of this entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. (A. Aljović)