Director of the Chisinau-based Market Economy Institute Roman Chirca considers the report by the Black Sea University Foundation (BSUF) about the authorities’ intention to nationalize Banca de Economii (BEM) is an apogee of incompetence. According to him, the conclusions of the report are erroneous and do not correspond to the real situation, IPN reports, quoting the portal deschide.md.

“Nationalization is possible with the consent of the current majority shareholders, while the state is a majority shareholder with a holding of 56%. Therefore, the bank can be nationalized by a normative act adopted by Parliament, which can envision the payment of compensation or the gratis takeover. Given that the net asset value per share is negative, the value of these shares is nil,” said Roman Chirca.

The economist noted the assertion that the nationalization would cost the state 7-8% of the GDP is unfounded as the bank costs nothing. As to the fact that 10% of the GDP will be used to settle the BEM’s debts, Roman Chirca said that after nationalization the state is the owner not of the BEM, but of the bank’s shares and this is something different as the state does not bear responsibility for the BEM’s obligations.

On June 23, IPN New Agency published the conclusions of the report by the BSUF, which says that the BEM can be nationalized only with the consent of the current majority shareholders and this nationalization would cost 7-8% of the GDP. After the nationalization, the state will have to pay all the debts assumed earlier by the BEM, which is another 10% of the GDP. Thus, the budget deficit during the first year alone will rise to over 17%. This would make it unsustainable and would lead to a default in Moldova.