ANALYSIS
Modernization of Macedonian Capital
Market & Payment Operations Rules
Author: Nina Koltchakova, Team Leader, Further harmonization with EU ‘acquis’ in the field of movement
of capital and payments and financial services – securities markets and investment services project
Macedonian regulators are undertaking firm steps to modernise
legislation in the area of payment
operations and the capital market
to bring it as close as possible to
the European Union directives in
this field. A project financed by the
EU IPA Program for Macedonia has
been underway for more than 14
months to support this initiative.
The project is implemented by
Alternative Consulting in consortium with PwC EU Services (BE)
and PwC DOOEL Skopje.
The current Law on
Securities and Law on
Payment operations will
be replaced by 3 entirely
new legal acts – Law
on Payment Services and
Payment Systems, Law
on Financial Instruments
and Law on Prospectuses
of Securities and
Transparency for Issuers.
Fundamental EU legal acts are being
transposed currently by the project
experts and the Macedonian partner institutions1 contributing to the
country’s efforts to join the EU family. The current Law on Securities
and Law on Payment operations will
be replaced by 3 entirely new legal
acts – Law on Payment Services and
1 Ministry of Finance, National Bank of
the Republic of Macedonia and the Securities
and Exchange Commission
Payment Systems, Law on Financial
Instruments and Law on Prospectuses
of Securities and Transparency for
Issuers. As a result of the reform
capital market professionals, investors, payment services providers
and users will be subject to the
same rules (those applied in all EU
member states) and will benefit
from the same level of protection of
their rights.
The objective is not simply to fulfil
the formal criteria for
EU accession purposes.
Even in the pre-accession period, the country
can benefit substantially
from the new legal
framework in the following ways:
invest in the country) will be significantly reduced due to the fact
that local legal environment in the
areas covered by the Project will
be identical to the one in the EU
member states.
The drafts of the laws are already
in the final stage of preparation and
the project team will present them
to all interested parties in the last
week of May and first week in June
2016.
• It is a step toward opening and
liberalising the local financial
market. The payment services
industry will be open to nonbank payment institutions.
• Conditions for the emergence of new products and
services in the financial
market will be