The banks licensed in Moldova are open to cooperate with the economic agents from the Transnistrian region. The statement was made by the deputy governor of the National Bank of Moldova, Ion Sturzu, at a task subgroup meeting at the headquarters of the OSCE Mission in Tiraspol, on Monday, September 16. According to a BNM press release, the official said that banks treat their customers fairly and that the only requirement is compliance with the law.

According to Ion Sturzu, the Republic of Moldova is in line with international requirements for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing. In this regard, in 2018, the Law on preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing came into force, according to which the clients of the banks must be transparent when carrying out transactions. "The economic agents, including those from the Transnistrian region, expressed their agreement with these requirements when they applied to open accounts with the banks", said Ion Sturzu.

Considering that the BNM, according to law, "licenses, supervises and regulates the activity of financial institutions", for the opening of accounts in banks licensed in Moldova, no additional permission is required from other institutions, neither from institutions from the Transnistrian region.

The BNM deputy governor also emphasized that the information regarding the 420 legal entities from the left bank of the Dniester, which have bank accounts in the Republic of Moldova, cannot be disclosed, because, according to the law, it was obtained from commercial banks and can only be used for surveillance purposes.

As a result of the information presented by the licensed banks, the accounts of 67 economic agents, two of them from the Transnistrian region, have been blocked since the beginning of this year. The reason for the block was their non-transparent activity, which included reporting of incorrect information and inability to justify money origin.