Resignation of National Bank leadership does not affect negotiations with International Monetary Fund, Moldovan premier believes

Chisinau, 21 September /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet today rated National Bank of Moldova (BNM) Governor Dorin Dragutanu’s decision to resign as a "very responsible decision that we could even qualify as a courageous one." "By making this decision, he takes on the responsibility for the situation in the banking sector, which covers not only the three banks that were embezzled and are under liquidation, but also in the entire banking system," the premier said at a briefing.

This decision has no effect, since only the application was submitted. According to the legislation, a specific term must pass, therefore all the responsibility for the further functioning of the banking sector and the supervision thereof, remain within the governor’s responsibilities and his team, the prime minister added.

According to him, the moment the resignation application was filed raises questions because it took place right before the arrival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission on 22 September.

Valeriu Strelet stressed that the resignation of the central bank's leadership would not affect negotiations with the IMF, because there was no interim governor that could not discuss with the experts, since the request had not been approved. "The government’s team is fully prepared for these negotiations, which we hope will be completed successfully and will lead to macro-financial stabilisation and normalisation of relations with all development partners," the prime minister said.

The statements according to which the National Bank leadership was coerced into taking this decision shall not bear criticism, "because more public stakeholders have referred to the fact that there were many questions for the National Bank and it is natural for them to exist since serious problems occurred in the banking sector, that have generated a chain reaction and triggered the problems in other sectors", Valeriu Strelet added.

The prime minister considered the BNM governor’s statement bizarre - according to the governor, the government would not want the second investigation of the fraud in the three banks to take place, even though the new government summoned the National Financial Stability Committee to address this topic on its first day of activity. "The government is very interested in the second phase of the investigation and recovery of the embezzled funds to start as soon as possible, and for the offenders to be punished," Valeriu Strelet concluded.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor A. Raileanu)