Banks, Budget, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

The Bank of Estonia's contribution to the state budget is limited by its relatively small capital compared to other central banks of the eurozone, supervisory board chairman Mart Laar said. The supervisory board has decided to accumulate sufficient reserves for the central bank to be able to cope without the state's help in the case of problems, he added.

The Bank of Estonia capital as a ratio to monetary policy assets is one of the lowest among central banks of the euro area. Comparison with other central banks is important, because the balance of risks to capital of the central banks of the euro area and the European Central Bank all taken together is considered when joint monetary policy decisions are made.

For this reason the supervisory board of the Bank of Estonia set in 2012 a long-term goal of increasing the bank's capital ratio to the average level of central banks of the eurozone, which means an increase of around one billion euros, to 1.3 billion euros.

In 2015, the Bank of Estonia received 26.9 million euros in income from the joint monetary policy and currency issuance activities of the eurosystem and earned 23 million euros from investment activities. Its operating expenses totaled 17 million euros.

Since 1992, the Bank of Estonia has paid a total of 141 million euros of its profit into the state budget.