General task

The Central Bank of Tunisia's general assignment is to preserve price stability. In this respect the bank is notably in charge of :

•  Watching over the monetary policy ;
• Controlling money in circulation and being watchful with respect to sound functionning of systems of payments as well as guaranteeing their soundness, efficiency and security ;
• Supervising the lending institutions ;
• Preserving both the stability and security of the financial system.

Special tasks

Coins and notes issuing

The Central Bank exercises, on the State's behalf, the exclusive privilege of issuing on the territory of the Republic bearer banknotes and metal coins which are the only legal tender in the country.

Foreign currency operations

• The Central Bank is responsible for safe keeping and managing the country's reserve in gold and in foreign currencies.
• It intervenes on the interbank market and publishes, just for information at the latest the following day, the interbank exchange rate for currencies and bank notes.
• It is responsible for implementing the exchange regulation and legislation.
• It grants any licence provided for by this regulation and guarantees the compliance with it by the chartered intermediaries.

Banker to the Government

• The Central Bank is the State financial agent for all its cash and banking transactions.
• It raises, on the State's behalf, funds in foreign currencies.
• It keeps at its headoffice as well as at its branches the Treasury current account and carries on, free of charge, all debit or credit transactions of this account.

Banker to the banks

• The Central Bank may uptake at banks and bodies specially approved by the Ministry of Finance, on its proposal, bills and claims on enterprises and individuals in the terms it deems necessary to achieve the objectives of the monetary policy.
• With a view to regulating the monetary market, the Central Bank may buy or uptake at banks negotiable public bills as well as any claim or security on entreprises and individuals mentioned on the list set up for this purpose by its Board.
• The Central Bank may receive in account, sums paid mainly by banks, other bodies entitled to carry out credit transactions as well as private individuals and business concerns authorised by the Board. Only deposits in foreign currencies earn interest.

"Authority" function and prudential rules

• The Central Bank defines prudential regulation, exercises a control on banks and financial establishments. The main purpose of this control is to guarantee the safety of deposits and of the banking system and penalize disciplinary misconduct.
• The Central Bank may ask banks and financial institutions to provide it with any statistics and information that it considers useful in following the credit evolution and the economic situation.

Supporting the State's economic policy

• The Central Bank of Tunisia may suggest to the government any measure which is, according to the governor or the Board, likely to have positive impact on the balance of payments, the trend in prices, capital flows, public finance situation and generally the development of the national economy.
• It informs the President of the Republic about any action that may, according to the Governor and the Board, reinforce stability.

Follow up of banking services quality

    In compliance with May 2006 amendment of the organic law, the banking services Watch stresses the particular interest with respect to improving the banking services quality and cutting down related expenses borne by the customer. This necessity that reflects the public authorities willingness to protect the bank customers' right and to ensure his full satisfaction is based on the need to perfect the banking institutions' upgrading and to consolidate their competitiveness.

    As per provisions of decree N°2006-1879 of 10 July 2006 fixing the structure and the rules of organisation and functioning of the Watch, the latter is watched over by a Board chaired by the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia and is made up of 12 members representing the public authorities (4), the profession through the Tunisian Professional Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (APTBEF) (2), its customers through the consumer protection Organisation (2) and the higher education (2), in addition to 2 national personalities chosen by the president of the Board. The working out and the implementation of the decisions of the Board is entrusted to the Secretary-General.

    To achieve the set targets, the Watch gathers the required information, processes them appropriately, works out relevant indicators and analyses the overall available data, in a way to assess services provided by the Tunisian banking system and to estimate relating expenses at their fair value. In this respect, the Watch uses a set of appropriate norms and rules, as a reference, helping to detect any significant insufficiency in this area and possibly, suggests the most appropriate solutions to radically remedy the situation.

    The wished transparency with respect to banking services will be achieved through a web site and a periodic publication in addition to the studies necessary to deeply deal with significant questions and the guidebooks worked out as a reference.

Other tasks

The Central Bank of Tunisia :

• Participates in the capital of the Electronic-Clearing Interbank Company (SIBTEL), because of the high interest which this new system represents to the Central Bank, as well as in any other company providing an interbank service that may prouve necessary in the future.
• Explores, in the context of mobilizing external resources to the State's benefit, the appropriate means to have access to capital market with the best conditions of cost and maturity.
• Ensures centralizing of banking risks that it transmits to banks and financial institutions. Furthermore, it holds and manages a file of non-professional loans granted to private individuals and may, in this respect, ask companies giving this type of credit and traders applying credit sale system to provide it with any information related to these loans or sales.
• Assists private and public enterprises in arranging external borrowing operations and analyzing financing offers.
• Manages an information system meant to help banks appreciate at their true value risks incurred (unit  of the unpaid cheques, risks, balance sheets).
• Collects economic information and puts it at the disposal of all operators through its publications.
• Works in the same time, for this purpose, to develop communication to international rating agencies whose rating represents a pre-requisite to any access to financial markets.