Representatives of a number of savings and loan associations (SLAs) call on the President and prosecutor general to take attitude to the actions taken by the National Commission for Financial Markets (NCFM) in relation to the associations. They said the NCFM, by legislative manipulations, abuses particular ambiguous legal provisions and forces the associations that own shares in Rural Finance Corporations to concede these to the Central National Association at a price that is much lower than the real value of shares.
In a news conference at IPN, executive director of the savings and loan association “Triumf” based in Tătărești village of Strășeni district Vasile Myrzenko said the Central National Association was founded by SLAs and its main duty is to represent and protect the interests of the associations. “In this case, it is hard for me to say that the Association focuses namely on this objective, to safeguard our interests. This, together with the NCFM, is attempting to dispossess us of shares in an unacceptable way,” he stated.
Vasile Myrzenko noted the share conceding conditions are too discriminatory as a share is to be sold for 300 lei at a time when its real value is tens of times higher. “The NCFM’s explanations that everything is done to develop this system are not credible,” he said.
He also said he was warned that if the association does not comply with the conditions imposed by the NCFM, its operations at commercial banks will be suspended. The NCFM violates the right to ownership and the persons’ right to form associations.
“Everyone made effort to develop rural corporations as these are the lifebuoy of farmers. For the tens of thousands of farmers, it is humiliating to be dispossessed this way.”
Vasile Josanu, of the SLA Chetrocredit, said that when reforms are done, the members of the SLAs should be consulted. In this case, the NCFM didn’t consult them about any of the aspects of the problem.
The representatives of the SLAs called on the directors, presidents of the Administration Boards and members of the rural savings and loan associations not to allow to be intimidated by those who do not care about the problems faced by the people in villages.
They said that if the NCFM does not change its behavior, they will mount protests.
The SLAs have more than 137,000 members. In 2018, these provided loans totaling over 810 million lei, an increase of 20% on 2017.
