The International Monetary Fund denies the assertions of ex-Premier Iurie Leanca, who said that the guarantees provided by the Government to the National Bank in 2014 were discussed with the World Bank and the IMF, IPN reports.

In response to media inquiries, the IMF Resident Representative in Moldova Armine Khachatryan said the then Government decided to act differently and did not follow the IMF’s recommendations.

According to Armine Khachatryan, the IMF held regular consultations with the authorities on issues related to restructuring of Banca de Economii (BEM) and also BEM group banks. At the same time, IMF has provided intensive technical assistance on these matters.

“Various issues and risks were flagged in our reports at that time, publicly available at our website. For example, the July 2014 staff report clearly stated: the fragile status of BEM and two mid-sized banks believed to be affiliated to it; the presence of indications of active concealment of banks ultimate beneficial owners and controllers; the importance of respecting the independence of regulators from political interference and advised to urgently pass legislation to fully restore the NBM and NCFM’s regulatory powers; the need to strengthen the legal protection of board members and employees of these agencies should also be strengthened,” said Armine Khachatryan.

“However, the government ultimately decided to act differently and did not follow the IMF’s recommendations. In the absence of an IMF program with Moldova at that time, the Fund was only able to provide advice and could not impose any conditionality.”

Earlier, the World Bank also announced officially that it didn’t know about the Government’s intention to provide guarantees to the National Bank of Moldova after the banking fraud and thus this couldn’t have been based on the WB’s recommendations.

The positions were stated after Iurie Leanca asserted publicly that he signed the decision as Prime Minister following consultations and based on the recommendations of the international financial institutions – the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The Government headed by the current Deputy Speaker of Parliament Iurie Leanca in September 2014 voted for the National Bank to provide loans to the three banks that faced problems under the Government’s guarantee. In November the same year, the Leanca Government issued state guarantees to the National Bank for releasing a loan of 9.5 billion lei at an interest rate of 0.1% to the three banks.