The contractor of the project “Scale Focus” AD presented the Unified Information System (UIS) and its functionalities to more than 170 representatives of companies and associations from the non-banking financial sector, as part of the implementation of the Project “Building a Unified Information System (UIS) for the needs of the Financial Supervision Commission”, carried out with the financial support of the Operational Program “Good Governance”, co-financed by the European Union through the European Social Fund, under a Grant Agreement aid No. BG05SFOP001-1.011-0001-C01 / 23.07.2020 with the beneficiary Financial Supervision Commission.
The Secretary General of FSC – Ms. Denitsa Kirova shared with the large audience her thoughts saying that “with the implementation of UIS, the Bulgarian regulator is improving the process of serving citizens and businesses. Digital access to our administrative services saves time, integrates the activities and processes of the Commission with the systems of the European regulators. The UIS is designed to streamline regulatory and supervisory processes. It creates a sustainable and positive work environment which consolidates different data sources, automates reporting and provides a new model of communication in the non-banking financial sector.”
The digitization of the Commission is part of e-governance. It represents a constant priority in all national strategies and programs in the Republic of Bulgaria over the last decade. Digital solutions in the interest of citizens and businesses are a fundamental change in the administrative service model, as well as an opportunity for standardization, interoperability and resource sharing by institutions. It is the automated exchange of data between the information systems of different administrations and the national scheme for electronic identification which remains basic condition for effective e-governance in the country.
“Today, in a fast-paced digital world, it is of key importance to anticipate and respond to changes, in order to ensure efficiency, transparency, and above all, communication at a whole new level between the regulator and all non-banking financial sector actors. I believe that digital transformation is not just a modern term, but rather a positive challenge and a real necessity. The implementation of digital technologies in the work of the Financial Supervisory Commission is far from an ordinary modernization of our systems, but it is also a reassessment of the way we interact with citizens and businesses. By the today’s presentation of the digital FSC, we are not only declaring our firm position to work to increase the investment potential of our country, but we are building a standard, by dint of which the Commission fully stands on the map of European regulators,” said Boyko Atanasov, Chairman of the FSC.
The UIS of the FSC comprises key horizontal components of e-government by implementing the National strategy for the development of e-government in the Republic of Bulgaria 2019-2025. As consequence of its introduction, it becomes possible to review, track, control, validate and analyze the incoming and processed information. It also provides opportunity of automated data transfer, including from and to external systems at the national and international level; the electronic administrative services (EAS) provided by the FSC are being upgraded and the Commission’s registers are being improved.
UIS implements a reliable, modern and secure way of communication with EAU applicants when submitting applications, notifications, periodic information, as well as other documents. Business processes and procedures for processing, control and analysis of data and documents are automated. The regulatory and supervisory activity of the FSC is improved by consolidating information flows and processes and creating an effective mechanism for implementing risk-based control.
The UIS also aims at guaranteeing transparent, fast and secure digital supervision, which will increase the competitiveness of Bulgaria as an investment destination, as well as upgrade the achieved level of regulatory and supervisory standards.
The Financial Supervision Commission will continue to be part of the development of technologies and digitalization, as well as actively working to achieve synergy between regulatory requirements and their implementation in a digital environment.
Part of the concrete results achieved over the past years constitute the functioning Innovation Hub, which secures a single point of contact with fintech companies; the digital campaign – #INVEST SAFELY, which through the online space provides basic guidelines on how users can distinguish between legitimate and dishonest investment intermediaries; the mobile application FSC Mobile – to help users and supervised persons, using the most popular operating systems – Android and iOS, as well as UIS providing automation to all basic business processes in FSC.
More information about the project is available here (available only in bulgarian).