Supervisory disclosure is a comprehensive policy of transparency. It makes supervisory practices more transparent by providing to all interested parties access to comparable information in the area of prudential supervision. Ιt promotes also uniformity and convergence of supervisory practices, including the consistent implementation of the European legislation. Transparency of supervisory practices and accountability of supervisors are key elements of effective banking supervision. The importance of supervisory disclosure and accountability are explicitly stressed both by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the European legislation constituting the Capital Requirements, i.e. Directive Directives 2006/48/EC and 2006/49/EC.

Article 144 of the Directive 2006/48/EC requires the competent authorities of member states to disclose defined information for supervisory disclosure purposes.  The required disclosures should enable a meaningful comparison of the approaches adopted by the competent authorities of the different member states, published with a common format, updated regularly and be accessible at a single electronic location.

The Committee of the European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), in response to the requirements of article 144 of Directive 2006/48/EC, has developed a common European supervisory disclosure framework and published relevant guidelines (CEBS, Guidelines on Supervirosy Disclosure). The scope of the CEBS’s framework is limited to the provisions of the Capital Requirement Directive (CRD) implementing Basel II. The framework is implemented by CEBS and national authorities responsible for the supervision of credit institutions and investments firms. Disclosures are accessible on the Internet, via the CEBS website and national supervisory authorities’ website, interacting with each other. The CEBS website serves as a centralized electronic repository and allows for quick and easy comparison of the relevant information across European Union. The websites of national authorities provide more detailed and exhaustive information required by the Capital Requirements Directive.

The Central Bank of Cyprus sets up this website, in the context of the CEBS supervisory disclosure framework, in order to comply with the supervisory disclosure requirements under the Capital Requirements Directive. The relevant tables of information are those developed by CEBS and implemented on individual homepages of the competent authorities of the EU Member States.

The contents of disclosures are divided into four sections, in line with the requirements of article 144 of the Directive 2006/48/EC, as follows: 

• Laws and Regulations
• Options and National Discretions
• Supervisory Review
• Statistical Data

• Laws and Regulations

The texts of laws, regulations, administrative rules and general guidance by which the Central Bank of Cyprus adopts the provisions of the EU Directives 2006/48/EC and 2006/49/EC which constitute the Capital Requirements Directive. The texts outline the primary supervisory requirements for the credit institutions subject to the supervision of the Central Bank of Cyprus, i.e. banks.

• Options and National Discretions:

The EU Directives 2006/48/EC and 2006/49/EC contain a large number of options and national discretions which may either be exercised by the competent supervisory authorities or the supervised institutions themselves. Thus, differences that result from different supervisory practices, national circumstances or even individual strategies are allowed for in the Europe-wide implementation of CRD. The list of options and national discretions published at the Central Bank of Cyprus’s website contains all options and discretions available to the national competent authorities as well as the way of exercising these discretions by the Central Bank Cyprus in implementing the two Directives.

• Supervisory Review:

This section contains the general criteria and methodologies of the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process (SREP), the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP) and policies on supervisory measures. 

• Statistical Data:

This section includes aggregate statistical data on key aspects of the implementation of the CRD in Cyprus. The disclosed tables comprise information on the banking sector in Cyprus, credit risk, operational risk, market risk as well as supervisory actions and measures taken by the Central Bank of Cyprus. The Central Bank of Cyprus will omit information regarded as proprietary and or confidential. 

Please note that the Central Bank of Cyprus is only responsible for the supervision of banks.  The directive of Central Bank of Cyprus that implements the EU directives 2006/48/EC & 2006/49/EC, now applicable to banks named the "Unofficial consolidation of the Directives to banks for the calculation of capital adequacy and large exposures 2006 to 2010" is now only available in Greek but will soon be published in the English language. 

Investment firms and cooperative credit societies are subject to the supervision of separate authorities as follows:

The competent authority for the supervision of investment firms in Cyprus is the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. For an overview regarding the relevant information for investment firms see the corresponding website of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission .

The supervision of cooperative credit societies in Cyprus is under the competence of the “Authority for the Supervision and Development of Cooperative Societies”. For an overview regarding the relevant information for cooperative credit societies see the corresponding website of the Authority for the Supervision and Development of Cooperative Societies .