The National Bank of Moldova, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other public institutions, recently met with representatives of the European Payments Council, in order to initiate dialogue on Moldova’s accession to the SEPA area, announces the National Bank of Moldova representatives.

In this context, Moldova and the European Paying Council agreed to cooperate in this regard and, as a first step, it was proposed to organize a workshop on the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), in order to provide the relevant institutions the opportunity to better understand the accession criteria and the steps to be taken in making this commitment.

The participants were acquainted with the essential characteristics, opportunities, and benefits of the four SEPA schemes for making transfers in Euro (SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit Core, SEPA Direct Debit B2B, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer) and the necessary conditions for Moldova to meet for joining SEPA zone.

“The National Bank, representing the local financial community in the process of including Moldova in the SEPA zone, communicated the openness regarding cooperation with local authorities in the field,” the note states.

SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is an initiative of the European banking industry, created with the support of the European Commission and the European Central Bank, which aims to establish an integrated euro payments zone and ensure that cross-border payments in euros as easy and efficient as the internal ones.

The officials from the National Bank claim that “they count on the joint efforts of the Moldovan authorities in achieving this objective.”