On April 6, a joint EBA/FIA/AmCham business breakfast with the Governor of the National Bank took place. The discussion were focused on the actions that have been done until now by the new governance team, and their future objectives.
The discussions were led by Sergiu Cioclea, Governor of the National Bank, Vladimir Munteanu, Senior Deputy Governor, and Cristina Harea, Deputy Governor. They have spoken about the results that have been achieved in the last year, reminding of the goals that the team has been following. This is referred to monetary stability, unblocking the frozen relations with external financers, urgent measures for stabilizing the banking system in the country, and structurally informing the sector. They have mentioned that results were achieved with help of the Ministry of Finance, the Government and the Legislative.
EBA President, Thomas Moser, reiterated that the financial sector is the heart of any economy, and hopefully the results of the measures that have been undertaken by the National Bank will be completed by the end of this year. He has also underscored the need for creating credits, since the creditworthy business needs access to finance. Last, he mentioned the compliance to the conditionality of external financers, without which the macroeconomic stability would be under stress.
EBA Executive Director, Mariana Rufa, mentioned the practical workshop that EBA has offered on Fraud, Compliance & IT Security, which the colleagues from the National Bank have also attended. She stated that the bank officers are not sufficiently instructed to deal with money laundering, and in order to preserve the connections with international banks, the security of the payment and operational systems must be taken care of.
Among other subjects touched upon in the Q&A session were about the automatic payment system, the Kroll report and the 3 banks on special administration, innovative banking solutions, the currency system and foreign exchange transactions, reliability and sanctions. The team of the National Bank thanked those present for their interest in the activity of the entity, and proposed several ways of partnering with the private sector, to be able to respond to the identified needs and minimize the costs of the reforms.