National Bank of Moldova governor highlights SEPA integration and AI assistant at Future Banking Summit 2025

The National Bank of Moldova published remarks by Governor Anca Dragu from the Future Banking Summit 2025 in Brașov, focusing on Moldova’s progress in aligning with European standards and the central bank’s role in modernising the financial system, including the country’s operational integration into the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) on 6 October 2025. The speech linked SEPA integration to lower administrative frictions and transaction costs for euro payments and to stronger investor confidence, noting that around 70% of Moldova’s exports and international payments are with the European Union and denominated in euro. Dragu also positioned SEPA as complementing the rollout of the National Bank of Moldova’s MIA Instant Payments system, reporting that one in three citizens uses instant payments and that functionality has expanded to public services and payments to companies. Looking “beyond digital”, she described an AI-first, risk-aware assistant developed by the central bank to complement human expertise and support financial stability, and highlighted international cooperation, including a recent “New Technology for Old Markets” conference in Chișinău with the National Bank of Romania and the Banque de France. In the EU accession context, she said the National Bank of Moldova is involved across several negotiation chapters and leads coordination on financial services, capital account liberalisation, and economic and monetary policies.