Banca de Economii (BEM), Banca Sociala and Unibank will have to repay the assistance of 14 billion lei provided by the state so that they are kept on a floating line. Such a decision was taken by the Competition Council, which said that the use of the state aid by the commercial banks six months after its provision is considered abusive, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the Council.
The Competition Council opened an investigation following signals that the legislation on the provision of state aid is being violated by the National Bank of Moldova because this didn’t present a plan for restructuring or liquidating the three banks within six months of the provision of the state aid.
Also, the fact that the Ministry of Finance didn’t inform about the provision of the state aid in the form of state guarantees to the three banks in preferential conditions is a violation of the Law on State Aid. Thus, the Ministry of Finance and the National Bank of Moldova are to take all the necessary measures to recover the provided state aid.
