The Executive Committee of the National Bank of Moldova established that a group of shareholders of Moldova-Agroindbank acted concertedly with regard to this bank and purchased a substantial shareholding of the bank’s registered capital, in the amount of 3.53%, without obtaining the preliminary written consent of the National Bank. Therefore, the central bank blocked this group of shareholders, IPN reports.

In a press release, the National Bank says that it asked the shareholders to comply with the provisions of the Law on Financial Institutions, which provides that the shareholders are obliged to return the substantial shareholding purchased without the preliminary consent of the National Bank, within three months, since December 23, 2015.

A series of transactions with the shares of Moldova-Agroindbank, including treasury stock, were performed last April. As a result of these, the list of the bank’s shareholders was supplemented with the nonresident legal entities Business Worldwide Alliance Financial Services Ltd (a shareholding of 0.9%), Money@Box Ltd (0.95%), Nestol Limited (0.98%) and Advanced Asset Protection LTD (0.61%).

Under the Law on Financial Institutions, the consent of the National Bank is not required when shareholdings of under 1% of the bank’s registered capital are purchased. The given shareholders didn’t ask for the central bank’s preliminary consent for purchasing these holdings and thus didn’t get it.

The National Bank says it will act in accordance with the legislation and with the best international practice to increase shareholder transparency and ensure prudent and healthy administration at banks.