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Financial & Banking
BNR 2019 Report: Market share of banks with majority of privately-owned domestic capital up to 18.2 pct
Monday, June 29, 2020
The market share - in terms of net assets - of credit institutions with a majority of privately-owned domestic capital increased from 16.9 percent as of December 31, 2018 to 18.2 percent as of December 31, 2019, shows the 2019 Report of the National Bank of Romania (BNR). Concomitantly, the market share of credit institutions with a majority of foreign capital (the branches of foreign credit institutions excluded) dipped from 63.6 to 61.4 percent, the report ...
BNR survey:Roughly 49 pct of Romania's banks expect lending standards to tighten for all loan types
Monday, June 29, 2020
A considerable proportion of Romania's banks expect lending standards to tighten for all types of loans, with consumer loans and short-term loans to SMEs being the most affected, reveals a survey conducted by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) on lending to non-financial companies and to households."Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that gripped Romania starting March 2020, the credit market has gone through substantial changes in 2020 Q1. ...
UNSAR-IRES barometer: Number of Romanians who buy insurance policies online doubles in 2020
Monday, June 29, 2020
The share of Romanians who prefer to buy insurance policies online by using the computer or the mobile phone doubled in 2020, from 6 per cent in 2019 to 12 per cent, show the results of a barometer by UNSAR-IRES regarding the "Perception of risk and the insurance culture in Romania," published on Thursday.According to the centralized data, 1 of 5 Romanians (approx. 18 per cent) prefer online services when buying insurance policies or manage them, while the share ...
Bucharest Stock Exchange becomes benchmark administrator as per the EU's Benchmarks Regulation
Monday, June 29, 2020
The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) becomes a benchmark administrator following its registration as such by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF), according to the new European relevant Benchmarks Regulation (BMR), BVB said in a release on Wednesday.This new license is a reflection of the high standards, quality and integrity applied by BVB in developing and calculating benchmark indices."The license granted by ASF to the Bucharest Stock Exchange as ...
NNPensii sold its Wirecard stake before fraud scandal broke
Monday, June 29, 2020
NN Pensii, the biggest private pension fund manager in Romania, says it respected all legal requirements when it decided to invest in the financial technology company Wirecard, now at the center of the biggest fraud scandal in Germany. The pension funds managed by NN didn't hold any more Wirecard shares in their portfolios at the beginning of May and were not affected by the recent fraud scandal that sent the Wirecard share price down over 80%, according to the ...
EBRD lending 10 mln euro to Romania's Agricover
Monday, June 29, 2020
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Friday that it has approved a project envisaging the provision of a senior loan of up to 10 million euro ($11.2 million) to Romanian distributor of agricultural technologies Agricover. The funds will enable Agricover to continue its growth strategy and finance potentially higher working capital needs triggered by the Covid-19 crisis, the EBRD said in a document posted on its ...
Liberal Govt. revives predecessors’ plans for Sovereign Fund
Monday, June 29, 2020
The Government's decision to launch a Sovereign Fund might be published in the Official Journal within three weeks, announced Sebastian Bodu, an adviser to the prime minister's office. It is going to be an investment fund and not a development fund, he stressed, quoted by Agerpres. The fund will be set up based on the Government Ordinance 100/2019 adopted last year by the Social Democrat Government. Therefore, the fund's name will include both ...
DIY chain seeks funding on the Bucharest Stock Exchange
Monday, June 29, 2020
MAM Bricolaj, a supplier of materials and accessories for furniture controlled by the Gavan family, wants to list its shares on the Bucharest Stock Exchange this fall. The company is looking to draw EUR 2 million from investors by selling a 25% stake in an initial public offering (IPO). The retailer plans to use the money for development. Local brokerage firm Tradeville will manage the IPO. "We want to ...
IMF: Reopening from the Great Lockdown: Uneven and Uncertain Recovery
Monday, June 29, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed economies into a Great Lockdown, which helped contain the virus and save lives, but also triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression, Interna?ional Monetary Found -mIMF informs. Over 75 percent of countries are now reopening at the same time as the pandemic is intensifying in many emerging market and developing economies. Several countries have started to recover. However, in the absence of a medical ...
EximBank and Agricover Credit IFN extend their cooperation and increase the loan agreement up to 200 Million Lei
Monday, June 29, 2020
Eximbank and Agricover Credit IFN have agreed to extend and supplement the loan agreement existing between the two parties in order to support the necessary resources for developing new financial products and services for the Romanian farmers. ”The new agreement provisions an add-on of 50 Million Lei and the extension of the disbursement period up to 2022. Agriculture is a strategic domain for us and the partnership with Agricover Credit IFN ...
Black Sea Trade & Development Bank has approved projects of over 1 billion euros under the 2019-2022 business plan
Monday, June 29, 2020
The Board of Governors of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) held its 22nd Annual Meeting under the Chairmanship of Ukraine. The Meeting was held via a teleconference to observe the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Board of Governors evaluated the Bank’s operational activities and approved the 2019 financial statements. 2019 was the first year of implementation of the BSTDB Medium-Term Strategy and Business Plan for ...
Banks solve 90 pct of requests to postpone credit payments in three months
Monday, June 29, 2020
The banks in Romania have solved up to now 90 pct of the requests submitted by clients to suspend the monthly payment obligations stemming from credit contracts, according to a release sent on Monday by the Romanian Banks' Association (ARB)."The banks in Romania have solved 321,000 requests, representing approximately 90 pct of the approximately 362,000 requests submitted by individuals and companies to suspend the monthly payment obligations stemming from credit ...
Press statement from Mugur Isarescu, the BNR Governor
Monday, June 22, 2020
Over the past four weeks, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) has further implemented the measures decided by the NBR Board on 20 March 2020 and reconfirmed as line of action in the Board meeting of 29 May 2020. Providing the necessary liquidity for the financing of real economy and government expenditures has remained the topmost priority. Thus, given a liquidity shortfall on the money market, the NBR conducted new bilateral repo operations (as set ...
Balance of payments and external debt – April 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
In January - April 2020p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 1,782 million, compared with EUR 2,258 million in the same year-ago period. The deficit on trade in goods widened by EUR 880 million, the surplus on services increased by EUR 465 million, the surplus of the primary income balance went up by EUR 427 million, and the surplus of the secondary income balance rose by EUR 464 ...
Deputies sweeten restructuring law for corporate debt to budget
Monday, June 22, 2020
Deputies have passed the Government ordinance that sets a mechanism for the restructuring of companies’ overdue debts to the state budget. They also sweetened the terms of the ordinance by delaying the ...
Banks grant loans of 4 billion lei under IMM Invest programme
Monday, June 22, 2020
As of June 15, banks had granted loans to the amount of 4 billion lei under the IMM Invest programme, and this week the one billion euro equivalent mark will be passed, Cristian Paun, chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Credit Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises SA - IFN (FNGCIMM SA - IFN), said on Wednesday."From my point of view, I think the programme is within its parametres. And to give some figures: on Monday, the programme ...
Scope affirms Romania’s credit rating at BBB-; Outlook remains Negative
Monday, June 22, 2020
Deteriorating public finances and limited external reserves drive the Negative Outlook. EU membership, high growth potential, and moderate public as well as external debt levels support Romania’s BBB- ratings. Rating action Scope Ratings GmbH has today affirmed Romania’s long-term local-currency and foreign-currency issuer ratings and senior unsecured debt ratings at BBB-. The agency ...
ING Bank climbs up one place to become fifth-largest lender in Romania
Monday, June 22, 2020
ING Bank, the local branch of the Dutch group ING, has climbed up in the local banks' ranking by assets, reaching the fifth place. ING has surpassed Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Ziarul ...
PM Orban: 200,000 beneficiaries of measure to postpone interest rates with banks; record in settling medical leave
Monday, June 22, 2020
Prime Minister Ludovic Orban on last Tuesday stated that there are almost 200,000 beneficiaries of the measure to postpone the interest rates with banks and that the amount settled in May for medical leaves was 600 million lei."There are almost 200,000 beneficiaries of the measure that we adopted to postpone interest rates until December 31. These 200,000 beneficiaries are only those who benefited from the emergency ordinance issued by the Government, because ...
Deloitte Survey: CFOs in Romania expect reduction of revenues and number of employees
Monday, June 22, 2020
The perception of the CFOs in Romania regarding the evolution of the main financial indicators of their companies has changed dramatically in only several months as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to CFO Survey ...