Today, the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) in consortium with the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) on the one side, and the financial regulators of Montenegro – the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBM), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Insurance Supervision Agency (ISA) and the Ministry of Finance of Montenegro, on the other, successfully completed the 24 months’ twinning project MN 08 IB FI 01 “Strengthening the regulatory and supervisory capacity of the financial regulators”. The project was launched on 30 November 2009, financed by the European Union (EU) through the “Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance” with a budget of €1,199,966.94.
The project has contributed to the harmonization of the Montenegrin legislation with the EU acquis communautaire in the area of banking, securities, pensions, insurance and anti-money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT), as well as to strengthening the financial stability, the cooperation between the beneficiary country (BC) institutions and enhancing their administrative capacity. The project results are an important step towards the preparation of the country for the negotiation process to EU accession.
The main results achieved are as follows:
– 8 new laws were prepared, 3 of which were adopted by the Parliament: the Law on Financial Stability Council, the Law on Take-over Bids and the Law on Investment Funds.
– An Action Plan for Basel II implementation, a new Capital Adequacy Decision, a framework for the implementation of Pillar 2 requirements of Basel II Accord and the respective guidelines, manuals and reporting forms were prepared. This will allow the CBM to plan its work over the next few years and help it set priorities. 
– A Financial Stability Council was established and action plans for crisis management situations prepared. 
– Gap analysis on the compliance of Montenegrin legislation with EU requirements was prepared as well as guidance papers for the transposition of all major directives in the area of securities and pension. Nine operational manuals and methodological instructions are ready and most of them are already implemented. Twenty four different trainings, including 2 international conferences, were carried out.
– In the area of insurance supervision Guidelines on how to perform self-assessment of the core principles of the International Association of Insurance Supervision (IAIS) were prepared, as well as a Self-assessment report of the IAIS core principles. Work plans for off-site and on-site inspections were adopted. The preparation for transposition of the Solvency II directive in Montenegro is on a positive track and a Road map is being implemented. Also, a National Bureau of Insurers was established.  As a result of the extensive training and joint work the insurance supervision was strengthened.
– AML/CFT inspection manuals, inspection programs, a MoU on cooperation between the BC institutions for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing were elaborated.
– Increased public awareness – an Investor protection and awareness strategy was drafted and is under implementation; information brochures on AML/CFT for the public and for the financial institutions, as well as on the capital market and the voluntary pension funds were issued and distributed; a SEC Information centre was established, a communication seminar for journalists and a seminar for law enforcement authorities on AML/CFT were carried out.

Additional information could be found in Section “Projects”, where the Brochure for the closing event of the twinning project is published:
http://www.fsc.bg/public/upload/files/menu/DipljanCrnaGoraBG_ENFINAL_0.pdf