The National Bank of Moldova (BNM) today informed that it had joined the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the banking supervisory authorities from South-Eastern Europe (SEE). Moldova is the first Eastern Partnership country to join this memorandum. This achievement was possible after EBA in 2018 had positively evaluated the confidentiality regime applied by Moldova in the banking supervision sector.
„The joining the EBA memorandum is an important step of BNM, in the context of the fulfillment of the commitments from the Moldova-European Union Association Agreement and promoting reforms in the banking sector, in order to strengthen the regulation and supervisory framework, in line with the international standards,” BNM Governor Octavian Armasu said.
„EBA welcomes National Bank of Moldova to the Memorandum of Cooperation with South Eastern European banking supervisors,” reads a press release by the European Banking Authority. This agreement “establishes a framework of cooperation and information exchange designed to strengthen banking regulation and supervision of banks operating in the EU and in the SEE countries.”
BNM said that, after joining the Memorandum, a framework of cooperation and exchange of information would be established between BNM and EBA in the field of banking regulation and supervision. BNM will be invited to participate in forums organized by EBA for the banking supervisory authorities from South-Eastern Europe, will regularly receive information from EBA on the development of the single supervisory framework from the European Union, on the convergence of supervisory practices, on the work of supervisory colleges from EU and on risks and vulnerabilities from the European Union’s banking system.
Also, EBA will provide BNM access to its activities of professional training, organized regularly. At the same time, BNM will provide EBA, periodically or ad hoc, information on relevant developments of Moldova’s banking system, which will be used on purposes of risks’ analysis.
The European Banking Authority is an independent authority of the European Union, set up in 2011, in order to ensure an efficient and consistent framework of prudential supervision in the entire banking system of the European Union.