Moldova's banking system is stable, liquid, well-capitalised and well-governed, despite the 'shocks' to which the Republic of Moldova has been exposed, National Bank of Moldova (BNM) Governor Anca Dragu said on Thursday.

The BNM official said, during the international conference 'Policy Coordination for EU Convergence: Fiscal Space and Monetary Anchoring in the Context of Accelerated Integration,' being held in Chisinau on Thursday and Friday, that Moldovan authorities had successfully implemented European Union banking standards.

'In 2022, inflation exceeded 30%, driven by an energy shock and Russia's war in Ukraine. Since 2022, we have faced simultaneous shocks: refugee flows, higher energy prices, disruptions to logistics chains and, last but not least, a level of geopolitical uncertainty that is weighing on the country's attractiveness to investors. Nevertheless, today Moldova's banking system - 95% of the banking sector's assets are controlled by European investors - is stable, liquid, well-capitalised and well-governed, reflecting the successful implementation of Basel III standards. The BNM is working with the European Banking Authority to secure recognition of the equivalence of Moldova's banking prudential framework with that of the EU,' Dragu said.

Photo: CRISTIAN LUPAŞCU / AGERPRES FOTO

The BNM Governor added that, following extensive sectoral reforms, all three major international rating agencies had assigned favourable ratings to the Republic of Moldova.

'As a result of all the extensive sectoral reforms, all three major international rating agencies have assigned favourable ratings to the Republic of Moldova: S&P maintained its rating at BB-/B (April 2026), Fitch reaffirmed B+ (August 2026), while Moody's upgraded the rating to B2 (April 2026) - all with a stable outlook. (...) The BNM has succeeded in building the tools of a central bank from scratch - a national currency, an autonomous monetary policy and the foundations of a capital market,' Anca Dragu also said.

According to her, the Republic of Moldova has opened its first groups of chapters in the European Union accession negotiations, which has enabled banking payments to become part of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).

'For many years, European integration was an objective we talked about. Today, it is a process we are actually going through, chapter by chapter, rule by rule. (...) In five days, we will mark one year since joining SEPA: Moldova is already feeling the benefits - the basic cost of accessing European transfers has fallen from a mandatory minimum of 20 euros to an average of 1.0 euro per transaction. More than 1,100,000 transactions have been recorded. Had they been processed through SWIFT, they would have cost the economy approximately 15.8 million euros; therefore, the real economy has saved around 14.7 million euros,' Dragu said.

Officials from the European Commission, representatives of the central banks of France, Ukraine, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Cambodia, as well as representatives of academia, are attending the conference 'Policy Coordination for EU Convergence: Fiscal Space and Monetary Anchoring in the Context of Accelerated Integration.'

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Vasile Tofan, also attended the opening of the event. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Cristian Lupascu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)