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Financial & Banking
Monetary indicators – September 2020
Monday, October 26, 2020
At end-September 2020, broad money (M3) amounted to RON 460,999.2 million, up 1.8 percent (2.0 percent in real terms) month on month and 15.1 percent (12.4 percent in real terms) year on year, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) said in a release on Friday. At end-September ...
Commercial cooperation agreement between UniCredit, China's Industrial and Commercial Bank
Monday, October 26, 2020
UniCredit and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced on Thursday the signing of a Memorandum (MoU) to increase business cooperation and offer solutions to customers in the fields of Global Transaction Banking (GTB) capital, financing, global markets, M&A and financial consulting.According to a release issued on Thursday, the objective of this Memorandum is to contribute to the establishment and development of a non-exclusive, ...
President of BGK: By the end of the year The Three Seas Fund is expected to have 1 Billion Euro at its disposal
Monday, October 26, 2020
“By the end of this year, the Three Seas Fund, founded by BGK and the Romanian Exim Bank, should have 1 billion euro at its disposal,” Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka, President of BGK and of the Fund’s Supervisory Board, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “On Monday we reported that the Management Board of BGK, as the main founder and creator of the Three ...
OLX Group acquires KIWI Finance, the largest credit broker in Romania
Monday, October 26, 2020
OLX Group and ORESA announce the intention to transfer ownership of KIWI Finance from the current shareholders to OLX Group. KIWI Finance, the largest loan broker in Romania, will be added to OLX Group’s local portfolio, which already includes OLX, Storia.ro and Autovit.ro. The transaction is to be completed by the end of the year, following approval from the Romanian Competition Council. Once the Competition Council approves the ...
President of ASF guarantees all private pension funds comply with minimum yield
Monday, October 26, 2020
All private pension funds comply with that mandatory condition regarding the yield, a very good one, of over 4%, the president of the Financial Supervision Authority, Nicu Marcu told on Tuesday evening private television broadcaster Digi24."I can guarantee you that all private pension funds comply with this yield. Moreover, the real yield is over 4%, a very good return. Even now, in crisis, because the investments made by pension funds are long-term ...
Biofarm, the second pharma company to join ARIR
Monday, October 26, 2020
The Romanian Investor Relations Association has announced that Biofarm had become Associate Member of ARIR. Biofarm is one of the first drug manufactures in Romania, founded 100 years ago by merging several pharmaceutical companies. Biofarm shares are listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since January 2005 and they are included in the Premium ...
Romanian banks extend EUR 2.85 bln loans to SMEs under Govt. backed program
Monday, October 26, 2020
Local banks have granted 20,000 loans to Romanian SMEs under the IMM Invest program so far. The value of these loans is RON 14 billion (EUR 2.85 bln), or some 1.4% of GDP, said Stefan Nancu, head of the state body (FNGCIMM) that manages this Government program aimed at helping small and medium-sized companies. Under this program, the state guarantees up to 90% of the bank loans and covers interest costs ...
Private pension system assets exceed 14 billion euro
Monday, October 26, 2020
The value of total assets, under management throughout the private pension system, reached 72.58 billion lei on 30 September 2020, an increase of 17.96 pct compared to September 2019, thus exceeding the 14 billion euro threshold, the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) announced on Friday.The institution mentions that this evolution was based on two important factors: increasing contributions by 5.61 pct and obtaining a profit of 1.35 billion lei, at the level ...
Innova Capital agrees to buy PayPoint Romania
Monday, October 26, 2020
Innova Capital, a leading private equity firm operating from Poland, has agreed to buy PayPoint Romania from LSE-listed PayPoint plc. The sale is subject to competition and regulatory approvals, as well as other conditions precedent, and therefore completion is anticipated to take place on 31 March 2021. PayPoint Romania is a market leading consumer payments operator in Romania, collecting over 100 m bill payments for 85% ...
Banks can start offering pay over the phone facility
Monday, October 26, 2020
Transfond, a payment operator owned by Romania's National Bank (BNR) and local commercial banks, has developed the infrastructure needed to make payments over the phone possible in Romania. The service, commercially available under the name AliasPay, allows users to send money based on only the phone number - provided the recipient has set a bank account (or an account of a payment service ...
Private placement of Safetech heavily oversubscribed
Monday, October 26, 2020
Cybersecurity company Safetech Innovations said that the offer for private placement of 20% of its shares was oversubscribed 8.6 times by investors. The company, which planned to raise 2.5 million lei ($603,049/512,862 euro) from Bucharest Stock Exchange investors, saw its offer oversubscribed within 37 seconds, Safetech said in a press release. By the end of ...
PwC Report: ”Securing your tomorrow, today. The future of financial services”
Monday, October 26, 2020
In contrast to the global financial crisis (GFC), COVID-19 triggered initial impacts in the real economy and will increasingly manifest itself in a second stage throughout the financial sector. The lockdowns and social-distancing measures imposed by governments around the globe to flatten the infection curves have caused significant damage to many industries, all of which are served by financial institutions. Compared to ...
State aid: Commission approves €103 million Romanian guarantee scheme to support trade credit insurance market in coronavirus outbreak
Monday, October 19, 2020
The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €103 million (approximately RON 500 million) Romanian guarantee scheme to support the trade credit insurance market in the context of the coronavirus outbreak. Trade credit insurance protects companies supplying goods and services against the risk of non-payment by their clients. Given the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, ...
BNR: The NCMO meeting of 14 October 2020
Monday, October 19, 2020
The third meeting of this year of the General Board of the National Committee for Macroprudential Oversight (NCMO) was held on 14 October 2020 by written procedure, the Central bank (BNR) informs. During the meeting, Board members examined analyses and adopted measures concerning macroprudential policy and systemic risk, namely: (i) the regular analysis on the recalibration of the countercyclical ...
Bucharest Stock Exchange lost 1.9 billion RON in capitalization last week
Monday, October 19, 2020
The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) has lost lasy week 1.9 billion RON in capitalization, representing 1.45 pct of the total, and the value of stock transactions recorded an increase of 18.99 pct.According to data published by the BVB, market capitalization reached 131.238 billion RON, in the October 12-16 period, from 133,175 billion RON in the previous ...
BNR: Balance of payments and external debt – August 2020
Monday, October 19, 2020
In January - August 2020p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 5,789 million, compared with EUR 7,099 million in the same year-ago period. The deficit on trade in goods widened by EUR 851 million, the surplus on services increased by EUR 426 million, the primary income balance saw its deficit narrowing by EUR 1,193 million, and the surplus of the secondary income balance rose by EUR 542 ...
Finance Minister assures no tax raise envisaged for this year or the next
Monday, October 19, 2020
The Finance Ministry has no plan to raise taxes either this year or the next, because it already has solutions for financing the expenses due during this period, Finance Minister Florin Citu said on Thursday."We are not raising taxes. I've said it: we are not going to raise taxes, neither now, nor in the future. This is not the time for putting up taxes. We believe in a liberal economy with few and low taxes which everyone duly pays. You must be confident. ...
Burak Yildiran, the new CEO of Patria Bank
Monday, October 19, 2020
Burak Yildiran will be the new General Manager (CEO) of Patria Bank and will lead bank’s development strategy in supporting local entrepreneurship and private clients, as well as in improving the customer experience and developing digital processes. Burak Yildiran has nearly 25 years experience in finance – banking and technology, of which almost 20 years spent within the Garanti BBVA group. Throughout his tenure he has been ...
XTB analysts win Bloomberg rank for Q3 2020
Monday, October 19, 2020
XTB’s Research Team has been selected the top forecaster for 13 Majors and second in the G10 Bloomberg Ranking for the third quarter of 2020, https://business-review.eu/ reports. The Bloomberg ranking takes into account the ...
McKinsey’s latest report: CEE’s digital economy grew twice as fast during COVID-19 lockdown as it did in 2017–2019
Monday, October 19, 2020
During the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) grew almost twice as fast as it did in the prior two years, according to McKinsey’s latest report, Digital Challengers in the next normal. Central and Eastern Europe on a path to digitally-led growth. Romania experienced a slightly smaller boost during the same interval. McKinsey estimates that between January and May 2020 the digital economy in ...