Vienna Initiative 2.0

The Vienna Initiative was relaunched as “Vienna 2.0” in 2012 in the midst of the unfolding Eurozone crisis, signs of a severe credit crunch within the Eurozone and rapid deleveraging in emerging Europe. The initiative now incorporates a longer term focus in addition to its valuable role as a readiness public/private platform that can be promptly invoked in dealing with financial crisis events. Vienna 2.0’s main aims include:

• Facilitating home-host country authority coordination and reducing regulatory volatility and risk.
   
• Helping avert systemic stress through closely monitoring and reporting on cross-border funding withdrawal of Eurozone-based parent banks in CESEE.
   
• Enabling quick coordination between relevant stakeholders in case of crisis.

Vienna Initiative is governed by a Steering Committee (SC) with the EBRD, EIB, IMF, the World Bank Group, and the European Commission as permanent members. Home and host authorities serve on the SC on a rotating basis. Currently the Oesterreichische Nationalbank represents the home authorities, while the Croatian National Bank represents the host authorities.

The Initiative currently has several areas of focus:

• Improving financing for innovation in CESEE (Working Group launched in 2018): co-led by EBRD and EIB.
   
• Sustainable NPL resolution in CESEE: EBRD-led NPL Initiative.
   
• Deepening and expanding Capital Markets Union to CESEE: led by the European Commission, with strong EBRD contribution.
   
• Developing IFI Instruments in CESEE: led by EIB.
   
• Raising the standard of Western Balkan bank regulatory regimes to levels equivalent with the EU (as defined by Capital Requirements Regulation).