Moldova is among laggards in Central and Eastern Europe by access to finance

The Republic of Moldova is among the last four countries in Central and Eastern Europe by access to finance, a World Bank research report covering 24 states says. According to the report, the access to financing services in Poland is the worst. Poland is followed by Moldova, Bulgaria, and Romania. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia provide the best access to finance in the region. Moldova is also among the last countries as regards the quality of information about lending services. Lithonia ranks the first and Moldova, Albania, and Ukraine the last by this index. The more sophisticated the statistical analysis about the risk degree of the credit, the more important are the benefits of the small debtors, owing to the cheaper access to bank credits, specialists of the World Bank consider. Research suggests that the appearance of big international players on the emerging financial-banking markets does not necessarily lead to easier access to information about finance. Many of the foreign banks are relatively large groups that can encounter difficulties in understanding aspects of the local business culture, the report says. Fifteen commercial banks work in Moldova at present. Five of them are banks with foreign capital.