Ivan Štefanec, MP for the opposition SDKÚ-DS has said he considers a central bank report about discussions which took place before the readjustment of the central parity of the Slovak currency against the euro to be incomplete.
According to the report, the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) did not find any evidence of abuse of confidential information prior to central parity readjustment. There had been allegations of a leak after Finance Minister Ján Počiatek was discovered to have met members of a financial group, J&T, on a yacht in Monaco in May, just before the readjustment. J&T admitted making significant profits trading in the crown at the time of the parity change.
"The NBS governor did not answer all twelve questions that we asked," Štefanec said. He answered only two out of twelve questions in the report. "I am looking forward to the meeting of the parliamentary finance committee," he added. The opposition MP and former Finance Minister Ivan Mikloš asked the central bank to compile a report on trading on the FOREX market in relation to the change of the central parity in May. Apart from this, Štefanec and Mikloš delivered a letter to NBS Governor Ivan Šramko, in which they requested that the central bank answer questions related to a potential information leak.
The NBS said in its report on August 19 that no relevant evidence of abuse of confidential information on the change of the central parity was found. The opposition believes that prior to the central parity change, there might have been an information leak. Representatives of the Finance Ministry, NBS and the prime minister had access to the sensitive information. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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