The Republic of Moldova received, on March 6, approval to become part of the SEPA area, the euro payments area, declared on Monday Anca Dragu, governor of the National Bank of Moldova, at a specialized event.
“For the Republic of Moldova, our priority is to continue successfully on the European path. And I have to tell you something extraordinary. On March 6 this year, the Republic of Moldova received the approval to become part of the SEPA area, the euro payments area. That meant a year and a bit of work. At the end of January 2024, we submitted the SEPA accession file to the European Commission. We had, as I said, rounds of discussions because they involved the evaluation of two extremely difficult areas. The directives on payments and on policies for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing. After months of discussions with the European Commission, we obtained this okay, this approval and soon the citizens and companies of the Republic of Moldova will enjoy safe, cheap payments in euros to the European Union. I made an estimate and we will have a saving of at least 12 million euros in the first year of belonging to the SEPA area,” said Anca Dragu, at the third edition of the conference “Economic Trends 2025”, an event organized by the European Businesswomen’s Federation (PEFA), according to Agerpres.
According to her, the trade of the Republic of Moldova is oriented towards the European Union. Currently, over 65-70% of trade is carried out with the European Union and 30% with Romania.
She also stated that the NBM launched, in March 2024, the instant payment system, which is called MIA and “is a great success”.
“Currently, after a year of operation of this instant payment system, we have over 500,000 users. And I can tell you that one in three account holders uses MIA for instant payments. Why? Because they are very fast, in 15 seconds maximum, money is transferred from one account to another, with extremely low commissions, even 0 to 10,000 Moldovan lei commission per transaction”, said Anca Dragu.