Estonia: The Riigikogu was given overview of the work of the Financial Supervision Authority

NordenBladet — Chairman of the Management Board of the Financial Supervision Authority Kilvar Kessler, who presented the 2019 Report of the Financial Supervision Authority to the Riigikogu today, said that the financial market of Estonia had been characterised by concentration, adaptation and growth.

“These trends – concentration, adaptation and growth – contain the obligation of financial supervision to ensure the regular and legitimate functioning of financial market within the framework of the law,” Kessler said. He assured that the financial supervision was working actively and reminded the market consistently and clearly that it should operate according to laws and regulations.

“We are a small, and not yet a very rich country,” Kessler admitted in his speech to the Riigikogu. “This determines the production portfolio of financial intermediaries: classical deposits and crediting in banking, motor third party liability insurance and comprehensive insurance in insurance, mandatory pension funds in assets management,” he pointed out. “Our economy is small and the households do not have enough savings to give wings to the stock exchange. Other investment products are also still trying to find a place for themselves in Estonia.”

The Financial Supervision Authority exercises supervision over around 300 financial intermediaries, like banks, insurance companies, management companies, insurance brokers, payment institutions, etc.

Besides the development of the financial market of Estonia, Kessler also spoke about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the financial sector.

“The Estonian banking sector was strong when it entered the crisis, on the average considerably stronger than the banking sector of euro area, and stronger than when it entered the financial crisis of 2008, but the nearest future will not be easy for the financial market and also for the supervision,” Kessler noted.

Kessler said that in order to ensure the stability of banking and reasonable treatment of clients, the Financial Supervision Authority had decided to suspend the payment of profits of the banks when the emergency situation commenced. Also, the framework for payment moratorium was established. As a result of that, grace periods have been implemented to around 5 per cent of the loan portfolio of private persons and 21 per cent of the portfolio of businesses.

During the debate, Andres Sutt (Reform Party), Anti Poolamets (Estonian Conservative People’s Party) and Riina Sikkut (Social Democratic Party) took the floor.

One Bill passed the second reading in the Riigikogu

The Bill on Amendments to the Courts Act and the Code of Civil Procedure (175 SE), initiated by the Government of the Republic, will create a mechanism in the Courts Act that allows to transfer court cases to other courts of the same instance if it is necessary for the administration of justice pursuant to the established procedure.

Jurisdiction of court cases and the location of hearing a matter will not change in the course of delegation between the courts. In the emergency situation described in the Obligation to Leave and Prohibition on Entry Act or in the Act on Granting International Protection to Aliens, the Bill will grant the chairmen of circuit courts the right to temporarily include county court and circuit court judges in the panels of administrative courts reviewing the applications for detaining aliens. Besides that, the right to get extraordinary assistance is provided; with the consent of the chairmen of courts, matters can be discussed on a voluntary basis at other courts of the same or lower instance, or in the mission for proceedings of a judge.

Additionally, it will be allowed to extend the authority of judges released from office at their request or due to age in exceptional cases, when it is necessary for finalising the proceedings in matters distributed to them. The Bill will extend the obligation of a judge to submit a request to be released from office from the current six months to at least nine months prior to the desired date of the release.

With the amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure, the resolving of all appeals filed against orders on entry in registry matters will be transferred to the special jurisdiction of Tartu Circuit Court through Tartu County Court. The aim of the amendment is to concentrate the competence in registry matters to the territorial jurisdiction of Tartu courts and thereby increase the specialisation of judges.

If the Act is passed, it will enter into force on 1 January 2021.