Moldova's National Commission for Financial Markets forwards draft distance financial services law and upholds coercive fines of MDL 52,500 and MDL 82,500

Moldova's National Commission for Financial Markets approved and transmitted to the Ministry of Economic Development and Digitalization a draft law on distance contracts for consumer financial services, alongside a package of authorisation and supervisory decisions spanning capital markets and consumer protection. The draft law would set clearer pre-contractual disclosure rules, require providers to offer an online “withdrawal button” to make contract revocation as easy as conclusion, and curb manipulative digital marketing techniques known as dark patterns. Capital-markets decisions included registering the securities placed at the establishment of market operator Bursa Internațională a Moldovei SA, totalling MDL 29,475,000 in 2,947,500 registered ordinary shares with a MDL 10 par value, authorising the demerger of Combinatul Auto No. 7 Chișinău SA with a transfer of part of its assets to Apeiron Group SRL, and removing Citro-Impex SA securities from the issuer register following liquidation. On supervision, the regulator imposed a MDL 52,500 coercive fine on Financecasa SRL for failing to implement multiple orders, largely requiring it to seek only repayment of principal from debtors and to refund all other payments collected under the credit contracts, and found Acord Grup SA to have used aggressive and misleading practices in compulsory motor third-party liability insurance by pressuring a consumer to reissue a valid RCA policy and pay an additional premium without a clear calculation. It also rejected preliminary challenges from Cash&Go SRL against an MDL 82,500 coercive fine for repeated non-compliance with 11 supervisory decisions, from currency exchange operator Macnotis SRL over potentially misleading display of the GBP exchange rate, from OTP Bank SA over the unilateral termination of a consumer relationship, and from Victoriabank SA whose challenge to findings of abusive deposit contract clauses was filed after the 30-day legal deadline. The market operator’s effective activity is due to start only after it obtains all authorisations required by law. Minority shareholders of Combinatul Auto No. 7 Chișinău SA may request the company to acquire their shares at a price equivalent to the net asset value allocated to the separated participation, set in the demerger project at MDL 1,113.12 per share, within three months from the registration of the capital increase with the Public Services Agency.