Anca Dragoo
Anca Dragu, president of the National Bank of Moldova (NBM), made such clarifications when answering the question of socialist deputy Petru Burduja about the growth of commercial banks’ profits against the background of the population’s poverty and inflation dynamics in recent years.
“The profit of commercial banks for 2025 is estimated at 4.93 billion lei, while in 2024 it was 4.1 billion lei. This comes in a country where the poverty rate reached 33.6% in 2024. In recent years, Moldova has experienced a dynamic and significant fluctuation of accumulated inflation,” Petru Burduja said at a meeting of the Commission for Economy, Budget and Finance.
In response, Anca Dragu said that, in terms of regional comparison, the Moldovan banking sector is not in the TOP in terms of “ROE and ROA profitability indicators”.
“We had a comparative chart at the regional level and, at least in terms of ROE, we were in the last place, and in terms of ROA we were somewhere closer to the last positions,” Anca Dragu said.
Banks are owned by foreigners
The MP also mentioned the origin of shareholders of commercial banks in Moldova. In this context, the NBM president emphasized that the banks’ activity is regulated by the same principles, regardless of the nature of the capital:
“The banking activity is governed by the same principles regardless of the nature and origin of the capital. The same rules apply to a bank with domestic capital, a bank with foreign capital, a bank with state or private capital – the rules are the same for any type of bank”.
She also clarified that the money managed by banks does not belong to the banks themselves:
“It should be said from the outset that this money is not the banks’ own money. In fact, it is money that they administer, through which they carry out financial intermediation. It is not the banks’ money – it is depositors’ money. That’s why the rules are strict – some would say tough, we say fair – to ensure that depositors get their deposits back. Otherwise, if the banks are not managed correctly and the regulator or supervisor is not strict, depositors will lose their money. And then the Ministry of Finance, the state budget and Parliament will have to ensure that those deposits are paid back to the public.”
