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Financial & Banking
BNR Board decisions on monetary policy
Monday, November 11, 2019
In its meeting of 6 November 2019, the Board of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) decided the following: to keep the monetary policy rate at 2.50 percent per annum; to leave unchanged the deposit facility rate at 1.50 percent per annum and the lending facility rate at 3.50 percent per annum; to maintain the existing levels of minimum ...
BNR report: the behaviour of the fiscal policy and that of income keeps its relevance as an important source of risks
Monday, November 11, 2019
The behaviour of the fiscal and income policy keeps its relevance as an important source of risks during the interval of projection, says the Quarterly report on inflation. ‘On the basis of the most recent information regarding the budgetary execution, the behaviour of the fiscal and income policy keeps its relevance as an important source of risks during the interval of projection. The configuration of these policies, under the specter of the electoral calendar of ...
OTP Bank Romania: Financial results for the third quarter of 2019
Monday, November 11, 2019
OTP Group announces the financial results for the first nine months of 2019. According to the report published in Budapest, which presents the consolidated result adjusted in accordance with the Group’s reporting standards, OTP Bank Romania recorded a consolidated after-tax profit of RON 79 million (HUF 5.4 billion), with 14% higher than the base period. In the third quarter the Romanian operation posted RON 26 million (HUF 1.8 billion) profit, ...
International Investment Bank bonds issue floats on Bucharest Stock Exchange
Monday, November 11, 2019
International Investment Bank (IIB) recently attracted a new round of financing on the Romanian capital market, for the fifth consecutive year. The bonds, with a 3yrs maturity and a fixed interest rate of 3.98% p.a. payable annually, were listed on Thursday, ...
BVB outperformed most European peers in Jan-Oct
Monday, November 11, 2019
Boasting a yield of 40% (including dividends) delivered to investors in the first ten months of 2019, the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) ranked as the second best performing stock exchange in the European Union, after the Athens Stock Exchange (+48%) according to data aggregated ...
Finance minister: Not sure we can keep deficit below 3%
Monday, November 11, 2019
The new Government in office in Romania since November 5 will target a 3%-of-GDP budget deficit this year, finance minister Florin Citu announced. The new finance minister also has to decide if he keeps the head of the tax collection agency - ANAF and wants to have the budget planning for next year drafted, “based on current laws”, by December 15. “Current laws” include the revised Pension Law and the 40% pension hike planned ...
The European Commission expects the Romanian economy to slow down from 4.1% in 2019 to 3.6% in 2020 and 3.3% in 2021
Monday, November 11, 2019
The pace of growth of the Romanian economy will slightly speed in at the end of this year, up to 4.1%, from 4% in 2018, but will slow down up to 3.6% in 2020 and to 3.3% in 2021, according to the autumn economic forecast released by the European Commission on Thursday. Compared to the economic forecast released in July, the EC has slightly revised upward the forecast on Romania, considering they were counting back then on a 4 pc rise in 2019 and an ...
BRD-GSG three-quarter net profit up 7.9 pct
Monday, November 11, 2019
BRD Groupe Societe Generale made a three-quarter net profit of 1.226 billion lei, 7.4 percent higher than the 1.142 billion lei registered in the same period of 2018, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.The gross operating result increased to 1.26 billion lei from 1.185 billion lei in the first nine months of 2018 (+ 9.2 percent in annual terms, the contributions to the Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund and the Bank Resolution Fund excluded).The first ...
Mazars Romania: Out of the 75 companies listed on BVB only 4% had a compliance level of 100%
Monday, November 11, 2019
Mazars Romania launched the study “Corporate Governance: building trust or compliance burden?”, where it analyses the companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), in terms of compliance with the Corporative Governance Code of BVB, implementing the principle Comply or Explain (CoE). The findings revealed that out of the 75 companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and surveyed here only 4% had a compliance level of 100%, ...
Fiscal Council president: Libra cryptocurrency is “very dangerous”
Monday, November 11, 2019
The Libra cryptocurrency is very dangerous because it would break the monetary system almost irretrievably, as central banks would lose their effectiveness, said on Tuesday Daniel Daianu, the president of the Fiscal Council, cited by Agerpres. “Cryptocurrencies are highly speculative financial assets, and assets such as Libra – whether they rely on a bunch of assets which are considered safe or on coins – are very dangerous because ...
Private pension funds made payments of 95 million euros for more than 60,000 participants and heirs
Monday, November 11, 2019
APAPR, the Association for Privately Administered Pensions in Romania announced on Tuesday that private pension funds (pillar II, compulsory and pillar III optional) made payments of 454.7 million lei (95.7 million euros) to 63,153 participants and heirs since its setting up to the end of September. The amounts are equally divided between mandatory and optional pension funds (226 million lei for pillar II and 228 million lei for pillar ...
Orban govt aims to list 3 SOEs on BVB, close sovereign fund
Monday, November 11, 2019
Romania's new government of National Liberal Party (PNL) aims to list three of the biggest state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and scrap the sovereign investment fund created by the previous leftist government, the prime minister's economic adviser said on Tuesday. The three SOE's that the cabinet led by Ludovic Orban plans to list during its tenure are savings bank CEC, hydro power producer Hidroelectrica ...
Profitability of Romanian banks improves in Q3 compared to H1
Monday, November 11, 2019
The profitability of Romanian banks expressed as return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) improved in the third quarter of this year (Q3) compared to the first half (H1). However, for the whole January - September period, the two indicators are lower than the record levels posted in 2018 when the system boasted the best financial ratios since ...
International reserves – October 2019
Monday, November 4, 2019
On 31 October 2019, the National Bank of Romania’s foreign exchange reserves stood at EUR 34,908 million, compared to EUR 35,423 million on 30 September 2019. During the month, the following flows were recorded: EUR 559 million worth of inflows representing changes in credit institutions’ foreign currency-denominated required reserves, inflows into the Ministry of Public Finance’s accounts, inflows ...
PwC Romania has offered consultancy to CEC Bank in the process of getting the EC agreement for the increase of social capital
Monday, November 4, 2019
CEC Bank and the ministry of public finances (MFP) as single shareholder of the bank benefitted from the expertise of PwC Romania in all stages of the getting the agreement of the European Commission – DG Competition for the increase of the social capital of the banking institution, informs the consultancy company in a press release sent on Wednesday.‚PwC Romania offered the bank services of assistance in the ...
Romania adheres to the International Monetary Fund’s Special Data Dissemination Standard Plus
Monday, November 4, 2019
Starting with November 1 2019 Romania joins the select group of advanced countries in terms of dissemination of statistical information that met the requirements of adherence to the Special Data Dissemination Standard – Plus (SDDS-Plus), requested by the IMF. Thus, as the IMF’s Communication Department transmits, Romania’s data are retrieved and posted in the Dissemination Standards Bulletin Board, attesting the ability of Romanian ...
IIB lists new bond issue on Bucharest Stock Exchange
Monday, November 4, 2019
Budapest-based International Investment Bank (IIB), a development bank whose members are mainly former communist countries, has raised RON 500 million (EUR 105 mln) through a new bond issue denominated RON, which will be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. This is the fifth bond issue the IIB has carried in Romania. It will have a maturity of three years and a fixed 3.98% coupon payable annually, as shown in the documents published on the Stock ...
Loredana Chitu (Dentons): The Romanian stock exchange market lacks liquidity, which keeps investors away
Monday, November 4, 2019
The Romanian stock exchange lacks liquidity, which is something that discourages investors, Loredana Chitu, Partner and Head of the Capital Markets Group at Dentons, said at Business Review’s Foreign Investors Summit. “The Romanian stock exchange is unfortunately rather flat at the moment, and lacks liquidity, which makes investors hesitate and sometimes decide not to enter this market. It had some good years around 2013 with the ...
BCR 9-mo net profit plummets 65.6%
Monday, November 4, 2019
Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), part of Austria's Erste Group, said on Wednesday its net profit plummeted by 65.6% year-on-year to 348.8 million lei ($81.6 million/73.6 million euro) in the first nine months of 2019. Net profit was impacted by the significant one-off provision allocation related to the activity of BCR Banca pentru Locuinte booked in the second quarter of 2019, despite the robust operating result, low risk costs and good performance on ...
BCR ups loan portfolio by 10%, net profit impacted by one-off charge
Monday, November 4, 2019
BCR, the second-biggest lender in Romania by assets, part of Austrian group Erste, recorded a 10% increase in the total stock of loans from September 2018 until September 2019, to RON 39.5 billion (EUR 8.4 bln). The group’s operational results also improved significantly in the first nine months of this year, but the bottom line was impacted by a one-off provision related to the housing loans division – BCR Banca pentru Locuinte ...