On December 6, the World Bank and Austria's Federal Ministry of Finance signed an extension of a Trust Fund Agreement, bringing the overall resources contributed to the operations of the Vienna Financial Sector Advisory Centre (FinSAC) to a total of Euro 13.5 million (about US$18.5 million).

The World Bank was represented by Director for Private/Financial Sector Development, Gerardo Corrochano, and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance was represented by Director General Harald Waiglein. The new agreement will run to 2017, a total of seven years since the partnership began in April 2011.

FinSAC delivers implementation-oriented technical assistance in four thematic areas: financial stability and macroprudential frameworks, micro-prudential regulations and supervision, bank recovery and resolution, and consumer protection and financial literacy.

Target countries are EU candidate and potential candidate countries, EU neighboring countries and selected EU member states, and World Bank clients. FinSAC expects to deliver a total of 32 technical assistance projects and 16 knowledge products (including conferences) during the 2014-2017 program period.

For more information, please contact Fernando Montes-Negret: fmontesnegret@worldbank.org

About FinSAC: http://www.worldbank.org/finsac