The Governor of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), Anca Dragu, had a meeting with the Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Chisinau, Jānis Mažeiks.

The meeting addressed topics related to the financial and banking sector of the Republic of Moldova, the progress made in the process of joining the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), as well as the main conclusions and recommendations of the EU Enlargement Report for 2024 regarding the Republic of Moldova and the actions aimed at fulfilling the EU accession criteria.

"These discussions reflect the firm commitment of the NBM to strengthen the European path of the Republic of Moldova. By adopting EU standards, Moldova's banking sector will operate according to European rules, which will increase the interest of European investors in the domestic banking market, increase competition in the sector, improve the quality of banking services and the security of transactions, as well as bring benefits to citizens", said Anca Dragu.

The Governor of the NBM stated that representatives of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) and other institutions of the Republic of Moldova have recently participated in bilateral screening sessions. These are a stage of the EU accession negotiations, during which the Republic of Moldova informed the European Commission about the current level of alignment of the regulatory and institutional framework with the principles, provisions and standards of the EU acquis, the existing administrative capacity, as well as further plans for the full transposition and implementation of the entire acquis.

At the same time, the head of the central bank expressed her hope that the prospects for cooperation with the EU will be expanded across several dimensions, such as improving the supervisory and regulatory framework for the banking and non-banking sector, bank resolution, the research area and others.

It should be mentioned that the preparation of the Republic of Moldova’s accession file to the Single Euro Payments Area, which was submitted for evaluation to the European Payments Council on January 30, 2024, was carried out with the support of the EU-funded Twinning project "Strengthening supervision, corporate governance and risk management in the financial sector", which the National Bank of Moldova benefited from between October 2021 and April 2024.