Anca Dragu
The Governor of the National Bank of Moldova, Anca Dragu, participated in an online discussion with young people interested in the European Union, public policies and institutions. The dialogue was organized in the framework of the EYOUROPE project, carried out by Law&Lead and published by 2EU.brussels.
In the conversation with the students, Anca Dragu talked about the responsibility of economic decisions, her experience at the National Bank of Romania, the Ministry of Finance, the European Commission and the National Bank of Moldova, but also about how the Republic of Moldova is building its European path.”
You have worked at the European Commission, the IMF, headed the Fiscal Council, you were the first woman president of the Romanian Senate, and now you are the head of the National Bank of Moldova. What was the moment in your career when you really felt you made a difference?
I think every moment in my career has been important in some way.
My first job was at the National Bank of Romania. I was a young graduate and I felt very important, because every morning, every day, at 11:00, I had to finalize and send to the top management a document, an analysis on the basis of which the Board of Directors took decisions on certain operations on the market, either to inject or to withdraw liquidity.
For me, as a young professional, it was a huge responsibility. I must admit that there were many nights when I could not fall asleep easily because of this responsibility.
The point is that you build your career step by step. Every task I had I considered the most important thing I could do at that moment.
Of course, different positions and different responsibilities have a different impact. If you think, for example, about the impact of a decision taken by a finance minister, raising or lowering a tax has a direct and immediate impact on thousands or millions of people. It has a significant impact.
But you don’t get to take such decisions unless you grow step by step in your career. In terms of impact, probably the most important position has been that of Minister of Finance, because you have the power to directly and indirectly, quickly, influence many companies, many citizens and the economy as a whole.
But other moments were equally important. Now, as governor of a central bank, decisions are taken together, at the Executive Board level, but we have a major responsibility. Our main objective is to maintain price stability as long as possible.
For example, recently, on a Thursday, we had a monetary policy decision. We increased the monetary policy rate quite significantly, by 1.5 percentage points, from 5% to 6.5%.
It was a decision that we analyzed for over two weeks. I went to bed and woke up every day with this decision in my mind, trying to find all the arguments for the best decision I could propose and take. It is a decision with a significant and immediate impact on the economy, on companies and on people.
But this was possible, I repeat, thanks to my career and the experience behind me, which gave me the confidence to take on increasingly important responsibilities.
The simplest answer is this: I have been careful to grow step by step in my career and in the complexity of decisions. But at each stage, the decisions I was making seemed extremely complex. I was much younger, I had less experience, but even then, at the age of 24, those decisions still seemed extremely important to me.
Moldova recently joined SEPA, the European payments system. What does this mean for an ordinary Moldovan citizen?
Thank you for your question. It is a question which means a lot.
You are probably very young and you don’t remember what it was like before Romania joined SEPA in 2014. Maybe your parents remember. In 2012 or 2013, I was working at the European Commission and I had to transfer money from Bucharest to Brussels. I wanted to transfer, for example, €5,000, for rent, guarantee and other payments, and the commission was €50. That is a lot.
For Moldovans, until October 5 last year, the situation was similar. Each transfer cost from at least €20 up to €200, depending on the amount. For transfers of €50 or €100, the commission could be €20 or €30. And why would you transfer such an amount from Moldova to the EU or SEPA? Maybe you buy a card, pay a subscription, buy tickets. These are very simple payments.
As of October 5, 2025, if someone from Moldova buys a card and pays online, for example from France or Germany, he will no longer pay 20, 30, 40 or 50 euro commission, but 0, 1 or 2 euro. That means a lot of money that stays in the pockets of citizens and companies.
SEPA means cheaper and faster transfers. Before, such a payment could take three, four or even five days. Today it can be done the same day or the next day, practically within 24 hours. On average, fees have fallen by 94%.
Before, the average commission was up to around €30. Now it is €1.26 per transaction. That is a tremendous drop in costs.
In total, businesses and citizens have saved almost €7 million in the six months of SEPA. Every month, about €1 million more is saved. In total, credit transfers have cost around half a million euro and the savings have amounted to almost 7 million euro.
These figures are very important. The Republic of Moldova is a country with a large diaspora. There are many students who receive maybe 200 or 300 euros a month from their parents. Before, parents paid EUR 20, 30 or 40 for each such transfer. Now they pay 1 or 2 euros, depending on the bank.
But there is another dimension. The fact that the Republic of Moldova is in SEPA sends an important message to the economic community and to foreign partners. It means that the European Commission has carried out a very rigorous scrutiny of the Republic of Moldova’s payment legislation.
The European directives on payments are implemented in the Republic of Moldova, as are the rules on banking supervision and, very importantly, those on combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
This means that the European Union has looked at the institutions, legislation and rules in the Republic of Moldova and said: yes, Moldova is ready. From these points of view, the legislation, institutions and rules are aligned with those of the European Union. Therefore, the Republic of Moldova can be part of the Single Euro Payments Area. This is a very important message for companies, economic partners and the country as a whole.
You were the first woman to lead Romania’s Senate and now you head a central bank. What is it like to be a woman in such a field?
It’s a very delicate question because I don’t know what it’s like for men to be in such positions. But looking at the fact that there are so many men and so few women in such positions, I would say that it is probably easier for men.
There are challenges. We see very few women in very visible positions. In general, women in high positions are valued in a different way. It’s not just about substance, what they say and what they do. It’s also about how they dress, how they look, how their hair looks.
These are things that simply don’t matter when we talk about men. Nobody looks at the hairstyle of the governor of a bank or the hairstyle of the president of a senate, or the color of their shoes, unless they’re wearing pink shoes that you can see from the moon.
Society in general is more demanding of women. But for us as women, this must also be a challenge. If our husbands, fathers or brothers can do it, why can’t we?
I think mentality is very important. If you are told as a child that you can do anything, then you know you can do anything and you don’t see the difference. But if you’re told “you’re a girl, you have to be like this, you have to act like this, don’t talk too much”, then it creates a pattern.
When I was a child, I had a lot of very good classmates at school, very intelligent and very capable. But over time, I found myself quite lonely. I was more and more surrounded by men, and my intelligent and talented girlfriends somehow disappeared from such complex careers.
I think it’s generally easier for men. But I don’t think we should complain. I very much support women in politics. That is the key. If you’re there in politics, you can take decisions to allocate more money to kindergartens, care institutions or services for the elderly.
Society has built this idea that women have to take care of everyone. That’s why it’s important to have institutions that take care of the people around us, so that women can also take time for civic, political and professional life.
Being a CEO is also a very difficult job. It takes a lot of time. That’s why I insist that women reach the top of their institutions and especially in politics. In politics you can decide public policies that help other women.
What would you say to a girl who wants to go into politics or economics but fears the world is too big for her?
No girl should be afraid. Fear is the wrong feeling.
If other women and girls can do it, why can’t every girl? If boys and men can, why can’t girls and women?
There is no room for fear of failure or fear of embarrassing yourself. The more visible you are, the more you and your family can be attacked, but that’s part of the game.
The question is whether you are assertive enough and determined enough to change things. The downside, the pressure and the uncomfortable situations that come with being a public figure, can be offset by being able to make a difference.
These difficulties should increase your desire to be more convincing and achieve even more. There is a price to pay, but you have to make the game meaningful for yourself and others.
If you have a position where you can change the lives of many people, do it in a good way. Do it for good. I encourage the girls to take on these challenges.
You work at the National Bank of Moldova at a time when the Republic of Moldova is building its way towards the European Union. What is it like to be part of a country’s European story?
This is not the first country in whose European story I am involved. I was also part of Romania’s European story. Then, when Croatia joined the European Union, I was working at the European Commission and I followed this country very closely. It was already 2013, I was working with EU Member States, at DG ECFIN, and I saw Croatia through the eyes of the European Commission, as a new Member State.
Now I am in a similar position again, as a person working close to a country in the accession process, as Romania was in the 2000s.
After I came back from a fellowship in the United States in 2001 or 2002, I started a master’s program in Bucharest on EU policies and institutions. I felt the need to better understand what the European Union is, what it wants from us, what the story is. This need to learn still helps me today.
The experiences are quite similar. A candidate country has to implement the acquis communautaire, to technically align with the rules of the European Union and to operate on a merit-based process. But a country also needs political support. These are two important conditions for a country to become a member of the European Union.
For me, the European Union is a fascinating project. If you think back to the aftermath of the Second World War, you can see how shattered the economies were and how deep the suffering was. But some very smart people said: let’s do something different. There was World War I, then World War II. Let’s try something else. Let’s put our resources together in a project of peace, of peaceful development, of common construction.
It was extremely difficult. There are many stories about how countries that were enemies during the war had to sit at the same table. Older colleagues from DG ECFIN were telling us about the tensions that existed, for example, between the French and the Germans in the 1970s, based on history.
That is why, for me, the European Union is a fascinating project. It is a project of peace. It is a project that promotes values and democracy. I also lived through the communist period, even though I was very young, and I like to live in democracy and benefit from these principles.
It is a great honor now to be able to contribute to the European project of a candidate country, the Republic of Moldova. Moldova has become a candidate country and things have moved very quickly. We hope to complete the negotiations in a year or two, in record time.
It’s an honor, because I know the European project and I think it is one of the best projects ever. I like democracy, I like the values of the European Union and I would like to see Moldova there. Moldova belongs to the European Union and must become a formal part of the European Union.
