The banking sector in 2022 had a good financial behavior and kept solid profitability and solvability positions. At the end of 2022, the total assets of the banking sector came to 131.443,7 billion lei, up almost 11% on 2021. Against the Gross Domestic Product, the bank assets declined amidst the faster growth of the nominal GDP, constituting 48.2%, says the financial stability report for 2022 which was published by the National Bank of Moldova (NBM).
In order to limit the systemic impact, the NBM annually determines the banks that are of systemic importance and imposes additional capital requirements on them. The largest four banks remain companies of major importance. These are: BC “Maib” SA, BC “Moldindconbank” SA, BC “Victoriabank” SA, and “OTP Bank” SA.
The banking sector ended the year 2022 with an aggregate profit of 3.648,5 billion lei, up 59.5% on 2021. The rise in bank profits in 2022 was mainly due to the monetary conditions on the market. As a result of the accelerated harshening of the monetary policy, the banks adjusted their interest rates on loans slower than the interest rates on deposits, reducing the net margin of interest. The unfavorable macro-economic conditions, higher inflation and interest rates on the market led to the worsening of the quality of bank debtors.
The annual growth pace of the volume of released new loans declined due to the decrease in lending to the population, being affected by the severe hoarsening of lending standards and by the reduction in demand from private individuals. Companies showed an increasing demand for financing in 2022 and this resulted in a rise in the volume of bank loans provided to business entities compared with the previous years.
In response to the systemic risks that appeared as a result of the macro-economic instability and uncertainty, the central bank introduced instruments to limit the indebtedness of consumers by constituting a responsible lending framework for banks. Furthermore, to enhance the banks’ resilience to potential losses as a result of difficulties in loan repayment encountered by private individuals, the NBM increased the systemic risk buffer rate by 2 percentage points for banks exposures to resident private individuals.
