On 21 January 2019, the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) joined the Memorandum of cooperation concluded between the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the banking supervisory authorities in several of the South-Eastern European (SEE) countries.

The EBA’s press release.

"The adherence to the Memorandum with EBA is an important step of the NBM in the context of fulfilling the commitments of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement and the promotion of banking sector reforms to strengthen its regulation and supervision in line with the international standards", said the NBM governor Octavian Armasu.

The Republic of Moldova is the first country in the Eastern Partnership that has joined this memorandum. This achievement was possible after EBA positively assessed in 2018 the confidentiality regime applied by the Republic of Moldova in the banking supervision field.

The accession to the Memorandum will establish a framework for cooperation and information exchange between the NBM and the EBA in banking regulation and supervision area. NBM will be invited to participate in EBA-SEE forums, will receive regular information from EBA on the developments of the Single Rulebook, the convergence of supervisory practices, the functioning of supervisory colleges in the EU (EBA will endeavor to facilitate NBM’s participation in these colleges) and about risks and vulnerabilities in the EU banking system. Also, EBA will open its regular training activities to NBM. At the same time, NBM will provide the EBA with regular and ad-hoc information on relevant developments in banking system of the Republic of Moldova, which will be used for risk analysis purposes.

The European Banking Authority (EBA) is an independent EU Authority, established in 2011, with the aim of ensuring effective and consistent prudential regulation and supervision across the European banking sector. EBA is part of the European System of Financial Supervision (ESFS) and its overall objectives are to maintain financial stability in the EU and to safeguard the integrity, efficiency and orderly functioning of the banking sector.