AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW ON FINANCIAL COMPANIES IN THE SPIRIT OF PROTECTING CITIZENS’ INTERESTS

Nonbank financial companies, also known as financial companies, are financial institutions that offer various financial services, such as: approving loans to individuals and legal entities, issuing and administering credit cards, factoring and issuing guarantees, as well as advising on various financial and leasing activities. Unlike banks, for the establishment of a financial company, a simpler procedure is foreseen, even a license from the National Bank is not required, but only permission from the Ministry of Finance. The establishment, operation and supervision of financial companies in the country is governed by the Law on Financial Companies. As institutions that are in their infancy in the country and given the still insignificant impact on the financial sector, it is expected that the legislator will often make changes and additions to the legal regulations for financial companies. The purpose of these changes in the legislation of financial companies is to provide an operating environment for them between the protection of the users of services from financial companies and the increase of reliability towards these companies. In this paper, the author, in addition to analyzing the legislative platform and the recent changes in this platform, but through the statistical method provides an overview of the activity of financial companies in the Republic of North Macedonia.