​AMCHAM MOLDOVA WELCOMES AMENDMENTS TO LAW ON NONBANK CREDITING

The American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova gave positive conclusions to the amendments to the Law on nonbank crediting.

In a discussion with Infotag, AmCham Moldova Deputy Director Adrian Gheorghita said that chamber in general supports the proposals of the capital market regulator – National Commission for Financial Market, developed for preventing the shouldering of excessive debt burden on clients of nonbank credit organizations.

Talking about the NCFM initiative, that implies the limitation of the final cost of short-term credit, Gheorghita said that such a trend is registered in several countries of the region.

“For example, the European Commission revises the Directive on Credit Agreements for Consumers. In fact, in the dialog with the NCFM we supported this initiative, at the same time pointing at a number of risks, which may affect the credit proposals. Also we stressed the need of excluding some instruments creditors are using to restructure the credit debt”, he said.

According to him, the AmCham recommended to include such norms in the law on consumer credit agreements to protect both debtors who are clients of nonbank credit organizations and who are commercial bank clients.

Commenting on the initiative to oblige the nonbank credit organizations to report to the Credit Reference Bureau, Gheorghita said that this proposal was approved both by nonbank organizations and by the banking sector.

“The amendment will allow institutional creditors to more qualitatively assess the beneficiary from financing, which will reduce the risk of population over-indebtedness, as well as will raise the quality of credit portfolios”, he said.

As for the prohibition to attract physical persons’ resources in the activity of nonbank credit organizations, the AmCham Deputy Director said that the legal possibility of borrowing some resources from physical persons is indirectly stimulating competence on the nonbank crediting market and simplifies the access to financing.

He maintains that the liquidation of this instrument will at least lead to lowering of the pace of development of this category of nonbank credit organizations.

Asked which measures should be taken for developing the nonbank crediting sector, Gheorghita said that the authorities should identify all the legal shortcomings in this sector.

“According to the World Bank report “Doing Business 2020”, Moldova is holding the 48th place in terms of getting credits. Though this is a good result, our regional neighbors are much more competitive (Romania ranked the 25th; Ukraine – the 37th). Thus, the authorities’ role is to identify all the legal shortcomings in the sector, the elimination of which will lead to increased creditors’ interest in providing financing”, the specialist concluded.

Infotag’s dossier: The AmCham Moldova is a nongovernmental, noncommercial organization of private business in Moldova. It is a part of a worldwide network of 125 American trade chambers. Currently, the AmCham Moldova is made of 133 members, which represent leaders of Moldovan business circles, starting from the largest foreign investors to small private companies.