The dynamics of the political cycle in 2021 led to a pause in the institutions’ work in the process in the country. All the factors are now in place for its resumption through the continuation of the Coordination Council for Bulgaria’s preparations for euro area membership; and the institutionalisation of the Euro Adoption Plan. The draft of this plan, adopted by the Coordination Council on 30.06.2021, has already gone through the formal procedure of public consultation and inter-agency coordination, and has the support of our external partners. In spite of the delay in the formal process, the BNB remained the institution that continued to work actively in all areas related to the euro area accession, falling within the scope of our responsibilities. To this end, we established the necessary internal organisation of work and good operational communication with the European Central Bank. Specific individuals and channels for partnership were identified on both sides. In this sense, the central bank is ready to carry out the huge amount of technical work related to the adoption of the euro in a timely manner, notwithstanding the emerging tighter work schedule. In conclusion, 2022 is promising to be a year of challenges but also opportunities for the banking sector. The achievements of 2021 show that the sector is in a strong starting position to meet the challenges and make good use of the opportunities. 3/3  BIS central bankers' speeches
For an independent central bank to be perceived as legitimate in a democracy, it must be granted a clear mandate against which its performance can be assessed. However, the environment in which central banks operate is highly complex, and conditions can change rapidly. For this reason, mandates usually only sketch out a framework for central banks’ operations. This gives them much-needed flexibility in difficult situations. As a counterweight to its independence, a central bank has a duty to report on its actions, and the results. Indeed, the SNB has regularly provided detailed reports on matters relating to both monetary policy and financial stability. For example, it has explained the rationale behind deciding to discontinue the minimum exchange rate or introduce the negative interest rate, and how these measures have helped it to fulfil its mandate. As regards financial stability, the fact that macroprudential instruments often have powerful distribution effects speaks against handing over the entire responsibility for such instruments to the central bank. In contrast to monetary policy, these measures are sometimes targeted at specific sectors and groups, and thus also have fiscal implications. In Switzerland, macroprudential tasks have therefore been divided up between the government, the financial market supervisory authority and the SNB. The SNB is responsible for assessing the systemic importance of banks and financial market infrastructures, and plays a key role in the deployment of the countercyclical capital buffer. 1/1  BIS central bankers' speeches