At the end of March, banks in Montenegro held a total of €308.65 million in required reserves, according to the Central Bank of Montenegro (CBCG). Of this amount, 73% was held in accounts within the country, while the remaining 27% was kept in CBCG accounts abroad.
The average total deposits of banks in February, which serve as the base for calculating required reserves, amounted to €5.65 billion. Of that total, 85.02% were sight deposits, while 14.98% were time deposits.
Banks allocate required reserves based on a CBCG decision that applies a 5.5% reserve rate to sight deposits and time deposits with a maturity of up to one year. A lower rate of 4.5% is applied to time deposits with maturities longer than one year.
For time deposits with maturities longer than one year but with an early withdrawal clause allowing access within a year, the 5.5% rate is also applied.
Banks are allowed to use up to 50% of their required reserves interest-free for daily liquidity, provided the amount is returned the same day.
