banking in moldavia
- Thread starter csp dubai
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It used to be very easy to open accounts in Moldova, even for foreign companies. Things changed after the massive 2014 bank fraud, where one billion USD was stolen. At the time, that was over 10% of the country's whole GDP.
Since then and as Moldova is slowly pivoting towards the west, it has become a little harder to open accounts, and even harder to maintain them.
Not yet a SEPA member so everything that isn't MDL has to run through SWIFT. They submitted an application to join SEPA︀ just a few months ago, though.
Pre-2014, it was a free for all. Banking without︁ questions. A little outdated but tolerable online banking. Low fees. Average service: not the best︂ English, a little slow with SWIFT, and a lot of things done manually.
Post-2014, it's︃ more lenient than EU, but account opening is much harder. You can solve a lot︄ by forming a local company, hire a local as director, and use that. I believe︅ fees are still low and most banks have updated their online banking so that now︆ in 2024 they are decent.
One thing I know is that Moldavia hasn't existed in the 1800s.︈ It's called Moldova nowadays. 😉
Since then and as Moldova is slowly pivoting towards the west, it has become a little harder to open accounts, and even harder to maintain them.
Not yet a SEPA member so everything that isn't MDL has to run through SWIFT. They submitted an application to join SEPA︀ just a few months ago, though.
Pre-2014, it was a free for all. Banking without︁ questions. A little outdated but tolerable online banking. Low fees. Average service: not the best︂ English, a little slow with SWIFT, and a lot of things done manually.
Post-2014, it's︃ more lenient than EU, but account opening is much harder. You can solve a lot︄ by forming a local company, hire a local as director, and use that. I believe︅ fees are still low and most banks have updated their online banking so that now︆ in 2024 they are decent.
One thing I know is that Moldavia hasn't existed in the 1800s.︈ It's called Moldova nowadays. 😉
Thanks for the update! Glad to hear things have got easier recently with account opening and receipt of funds.
I think sending out is a problem with their correspondent banks. Have seen/heard of similar problems in Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. The big European and American banks are treating them as risky banks to provide correspondent for. Russian sanctions, money laundering, and the big 1 billion USD fraud in Moldova...
Have you noticed any difference in difficulty when it's different currencies?
I think sending out is a problem with their correspondent banks. Have seen/heard of similar problems in Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. The big European and American banks are treating them as risky banks to provide correspondent for. Russian sanctions, money laundering, and the big 1 billion USD fraud in Moldova...
Have you noticed any difference in difficulty when it's different currencies?
I used Moldindconbank for corporate banking and it was pretty decent. They have Raifeissen and Landesbank for EUR and a Romanian correspondent for RON and CHF. I haven't used them in a while, but I was told they lost their USD correspondent a while back because the bank was being used by a lot of Russians. Maybe they have one now, I couldn't find one on the site though.
I thought it was possible to receive EUR payments in Moldova from EU countries by using Bank's IBAN and BIC. I guess not yet.
Republic of Moldova to join the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)
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