System of National Banks (Yugoslavia)

The System of National Banks was established as part of the decentralizing policies pioneered by Josip Broz Tito starting in the 1960s. The National Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, National Bank of Croatia, National Bank of Macedonia, National Bank of Montenegro, National Bank of Serbia, and National Bank of Slovenia were all established in 1971 and organized by subsequent legislation; the National Bank of Kosovo and National Bank of Vojvodina were established a year later, in 1972. The individual National Banks were accountable solely to the parliaments of the respective Republics and Autonomous Provinces. The respective National Bank governors were ex officio members of the Board of Governors of the National Bank of Yugoslavia. Until 1986, decisions of the Board were made by consensus; in late 1986, that rule was replaced with two-thirds majority decision-making. File:Sarajevo Tram-Stop Banka 2011-10-28 (3).jpg|Former seat of the National Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, later Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina File:Hrvatska Narodna Banka.jpg|Former seat of the National Bank of Croatia, Zagreb, later Croatian National Bank File:National Bank of the Republic of Macedonia Skopje 4.jpg|Former seat of the National Bank of Macedonia, Skopje, later National Bank of North Macedonia File:Montenegro central bank.jpg|Former seat of the National Bank of Montenegro, Podgorica, later Central Bank of Montenegro File:Beograd - Palata Glavne pošte (43221958730).jpg|Former seat of the National Bank of Serbia, Belgrade, later Constitutional Court of Serbia File:Slovenia CentralBank.jpg|Former seat of the National Bank of Slovenia, Ljubljana, later Bank of Slovenia ==Collapse==

The System collapsed because individual National Banks were able to issue currency and made payments without system-wide coordination, and its governance through the Board of Governors was ineffective in resolving conflicts among them. The imbalance between the autonomous National Banks and the impotent NBJ was exacerbated in 1983 when the latter was made the guarantor of all of Yugoslavia's foreign liabilities. The degradation of the system culminated in December 1990 with Serbia's unilateral raid on the monetary system. ==Aftermath==

With the breakup of Yugoslavia and in the context of the Yugoslav Wars, four of the National Banks were transformed into fully-fledged national central banks by the respective successor countries: • In Croatia, the National Bank of Croatia was designated as central bank by the Constitution of Croatia on . The Croatian National Bank was then established under Croatian Law by Government Regulation of , a provisional act made permanent by legislation of November 1992. The National Bank issued the Croatian dinar until 1994, then the Croatian kuna. • In Slovenia, the National Bank of Slovenia was renamed the Bank of Slovenia by legislation entered into force on , the same day as Slovenia's declaration of independence which triggered the Ten-Day War; the Slovenian tolar was subsequently introduced as national currency on . • In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 1992 Bosnian independence referendum led to the country's independence on , upon which the National Bank became the new country's central bank, issuing the Bosnia and Herzegovina dinar. • In the Republic of Macedonia, the National Bank became the country's central bank in 1992. The Macedonian denar was first adopted as temporary currency on . In 1993, the National Banks of Kosovo, Montenegro, Vojvodina, and Serbia lost their independent legal identity to become mere branches of the NBJ. Also in November 1999, the Banking and Payments Authority of Kosovo (BPK) was established by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo, in the immediate aftermath of the Kosovo War. In 2006, the Special Representative enacted a new Regulation transforming the BPK into the Central Banking Authority of Kosovo (AQBK). The Central Bank of the Republic of Kosovo was then founded in June 2008, the same year Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, under Law No. 03/L-074 enacted by the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. ==See also==