Moldova prepares to start dialogue for joining Single Euro Payments Area

Chisinau, 23 September /MOLDPRES/ - The National Bank of Moldova (BNM), along with the Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry (MAEIE) and other public institutions, have recently held a meeting with representatives of the European Payments Council (EPC), in order to start a dialogue for Moldova’s accession to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA).    
In the context, Moldova and EPC agreed to cooperate to this end and, as a first step, they suggested the organization of a workshop on the Single Euro Payments Area, in order to give relevant Moldovan institutions opportunity to better understand the criteria of accession and the stages due to be undertaken in assuming this arrangement, the BNM communication department has reported. 
The participants were familiarized with the essential characteristics, opportunities and benefits of those four SEPA schemes for making transfers in euros (SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit Core, SEPA Direct Debit B2B, SEPA Instant Credit Transfer) and the conditions necessary met by the relevant authorities from Moldova, so that the SEPA geographic area includes Moldova too.   
The National Bank, by assuming the role of catalyst and representation of the local financial community in the process of Moldova’s inclusion in the SEPA area, informed about its openness for the close cooperation with the Moldovan authorities in the field.   
SEPA is an initiative of the European banking industry, set up with the support of the European Commission and the Central European Bank, the goal of which is to create an integrated area of payments in euros and make sure that the cross-border payments in euros are similarly facile and efficient as the domestic ones.     
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