Romanian, Moldovan central banks sign new Cooperation Agreement

The main and enduring message of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) for the National Bank of Moldova is that of a sustainable and robust partnership, BNR governor Mugur Isarescu said on Friday at the signing ceremony of the new Cooperation Agreement between the Romanian and the Moldovan central banks. "Let me begin by mentioning that this year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the first cooperation agreement between the central banks of Romania and Moldova. I take this opportunity to reaffirm the cooperation and rapprochement between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, between our central banks, based on shared values and symbols. The main and enduring message of the National Bank of Romania for the National Bank of Moldova is that of a sustainable and robust partnership. This is why we wanted to continue the cooperation between our institutions in a regulated form. As a matter of fact, the multiple transformations in the banking sector's regulatory framework at both national and international level required the conclusion of a new agreement to replace the one in force since July 27, 2001. So today we sign the new cooperation agreement between the National Bank of Moldova and the National Bank of Romania," Mugur Isarescu said. He mentioned that the general scope of the new agreement is the development and expansion of cooperation in areas of mutual interest with a view to promoting the proper functioning of the Romanian and Moldovan financial-banking systems. "We are expanding our cooperation in strengthening crisis surveillance and management institutional capacities, in the field of payment service providers and electronic money issuers as well as on the infrastructure of financial markets, cash transactions, cross-border transactions, for the combat of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as for statistical purposes," Isarescu specified. Governor of the National Bank of Moldova Octavian Armasu said that the new agreement between the Romanian and the Moldovan central banks is the most comprehensive cooperation agreement signed by the Bank of Moldova and which covers the most areas of cooperation. "We also appreciate the important contribution of Romanian investors, Banca Transilvania and BCR in particular, that have directly contributed to the development of the Republic of Moldova's banking sector and to the promotion of good governance, according to European Union standards and practices. The entry of Banca Transilvania - one of the major Romanian banks - on the Moldovan banking market together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development represented an important moment in the reform of the Republic of Moldova's banking system. It was a positive signal for other investors, mainly from the European Union, who decided to invest in the largest Moldovan banks," Armasu said. According to a BNR release, the new Cooperation Agreement between the National Bank of Moldova and the National Bank of Romania was signed on June 11 in Bucharest by the governors of the two central banks, Octavian Armasu and Mugur Isarescu. The general scope of the new agreement is the development and expansion of cooperation in areas of mutual interest, with a view to promoting the proper functioning of the Romanian and Moldovan financial-banking systems. The new agreement expands cooperation on institutional capacity building in areas such as banking supervision, crisis management, the activity of payment service providers and electronic money issuers, financial market infrastructures, cash operations, preventing and combating money counterfeiting, money laundering and terrorist financing, statistics, as well as supervising the enforcement of international sanctions in the financial-banking field. The new agreement replaces the previous one, signed on July 27, 2001, on cooperation on the mutual exchange of information and the conduct of bank inspections in order to increase efficiency and ensure banking supervision on a consolidated basis, following the multiple transformations in the banking sector's national and international regulatory framework. AGERPRES (RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)