Financial Services, Latvia

The committee has received a total of forty proposals concerning the legislation before the bill is reviewed by Saeima in the second reading. The committee was unable to review all the proposals today and will continue discussing the proposals after Saeima meeting tomorrow, May 23.

The committee supported a proposal submitted by Saeima member Maris Kucinskis (Greens/Farmers), which aims to reduce the number of the FCMC council members from five to three. In Kucinskis' opinion, this will ensure better teamwork of the FCMC members, as well as give the FCMC head more power, as well as more responsibilities. Kucinskis also said that this would also mean fewer opportunities to exert political influence on the FCMC.

The FCMC's representatives warned Saeima members that the commission's council should be made up of five members, taking into consideration that there were a lot of issues for the commission to solve.

The Saeima committee also agreed today that all FCMC council members would be nominated by the Cabinet of Ministers and appointed by the parliament. The Cabinet's commission for assessing the candidates will be headed by the State Chancellery's director and made up of the finance minister, the Bank of Latvia council member, Constitutional Protection Bureau's director, head of the Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds Derived from Criminal Activity, and chief of the State Security Service.

As reported, changes to the FCMC are part of Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins' (New Unity) plan to revamp the financial sector's supervisory authorities.

A new FCMC council is to be appointed by October 1 this year.