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Financial & Banking
ASF: five companies control almost 58% of the insurance market in Romania
Monday, December 17, 2018
The insurance market in Romania is characterized by an average level to high of concentration, in the context where five companies control almost 58% of the market, after the first nine months of the year, and the leader of the market has become City Insurance with a quota of 13.72% according to the data published on Thursday by the Authority for Financial Supervision (ASF). ASF announced a week ago that the insurance companies in Romania registered an advance of 2.1% of the gross ...
BNR: External debt approaches EUR 100 bln on rising short-term credit
Monday, December 17, 2018
Romania’s total external debt grew by 1.5 percent in the first ten months of this year compared with December 2017, to EUR 98.85 billion, due mainly to rising short-term debt, National Bank of Romania (BNR) data show. Long-term public debt rose by EUR 854 million, to EUR 34.4 billion at the end of October, while the non-publicly guaranteed debt (mostly private) declined by EUR 1.1 million, to EUR 32.68 billion. The total long-term external debt amounted to EUR 68.286 ...
Current account deficit jumps 52 pct to EUR 8 bln in January-October
Monday, December 17, 2018
„The deficit on trade in goods widened by EUR 2.041 billion, the surplus on services income narrowed by EUR 196 million, the deficit of the primary income balance increased by EUR 170 million, and the surplus of the secondary income balance decreased by EUR 317 million,” the central bank said on Friday, in a press release. The main source of the large external deficit is the negative trade balance. “After a benign September, the trade balance ...
FDI up 9.7 pct in the first 10 months of 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
Foreign direct investment increased by 9.74 percent in the first ten months of this year compared to the same period of 2017, to EUR 4.56 billion, according to data published on Friday by the National Bank of Romania (BNR). “Direct investments by non-residents in Romania totalled EUR 4.56 billion (compared to EUR 4.15 billion in January-October 2017), of which capital participation (including estimated reinvested net profit) amounted to EUR 3.57 billion, while intra-group loans ...
Aforti Exchange Romania intermediated currency exchanges worth over EUR 60 M this year
Monday, December 17, 2018
Aforti Exchange, the first Polish fintech and a foreign exchange platform that entered Romanian market in October 2017, will close 2018 with triple the expected result as it forecasts reaching turnover of more than EUR 60 million for the full year of 2018, the company has announced on Thursday, romaniajournal.ro reports. The Romanian subsidiary company has just closed the best month in its history, having intermediated in November alone currency transactions in the amount of EUR ...
Erste Group warns: The EUR will reach RON 4.8 next year, political instability will hinder deficit reduction
Monday, December 17, 2018
The difficult fiscal situation, lower economic growth and the deepening of external deficits will depreciate the national current against the EUR next year to almost 4.8 units, Erste Group warns, romaniajournal.ro informs. “The occasional episodes of aversion to risk worldwide and/or the domestic shocks will probably trigger RON depreciation by 2-3%, we consider as being below the annual limit set by BNR,” Erste specialists say, quoted by ziare.com. Erste expects ...
Romania sets new targets for Eurozone accession
Monday, December 17, 2018
Members of the National Commission for the development of the national plan to adopt the euro currency met on last Tuesday at the Victoria Palace, and discussed the documents that will be used as the foundation for Romania’s adoption of the European single currency, according to a press release, http://business-review.eu informs. The national plan to adopt the euro and its related foundation report are the result of consultations with ...
GfK: Nearly Half of Romanians Want to Get Loans in Next 6 Months
Monday, December 17, 2018
Around 44% of Romanians intend to get a loan in the next six months and just 8% are completely certain they won't resort to this financing option, according to a poll by GfK, ordered by International Personal Finance which owns Provident Financial Romania. On a global level, only Mexico is ahead of Romania, with 48% people intending to get loans in the next six months. In Europe, Romania's 44% compares with 37% of people in Poland, 24% in Czech Republic, 16% in Hungary, 14% in ...
130,903 mortgages in Romania in the first 11 months
Monday, December 17, 2018
The Romanian market recorded 130,903 active mortgages in intravilan areas in the first 11 months of the year, most of them (24,000) in Bucharest, http://business-review.eu reports. The capital city is followed by the Ilfov and Cluj counties, with around 12,000 and 8,776, respectively. The best month was July at the national level, with 11,982 mortgages. For Bucharest, it was February, with 3,531, and October for Cluj, with 1,140 ...
Isarescu: ”10 bani less in the fuel price is enough to help us with inflation’
Monday, December 10, 2018
Mugur Isarescu, the governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) estimated on Monday that inflation in Romania will drop at the end of the year and an important role has the price of oil as Romania is more sensitive to foreign markets.‘The shocks from abroad are visible faster in inflation in our country than the surplus (the growth of local economy). It was obvious through the crises on the oil market. I was shocked, maybe you too, and I say it is ...
Raiffeisen Bank reaches 500,000 credit card threshold
Monday, December 10, 2018
Raiffeisen Bank has exceeded the threshold of 500,000 shopping cards, the largest credit card portfolio of a bank in Romania, http://business-review.eu reports. In addition, since November, the bank has been offering individuals the ability to obtain their cards immediately. In short, the customer receives the card on the spot, requests and receives the card’s temporary PIN code via SMS and can start using ...
eMAG-Raiffeisen Bank shopping card portfolio is quickly moving towards 25,000 cards
Monday, December 10, 2018
The continuous improvement of the functionalities and services offered, the extension of the partnerships with traders, coupled with a favorable macroeconomic situation, have led to a 10 percent increase in the number of newly-issued credit cards in the last year. In the first nine months of 2018, volumes traded in retail increased by almost 20 percent over the same period last year. Raiffeisen Bank’s market share is on the rise, reaching 17 percent of all valid and in ...
Daianu : Productivity - key to resistance in Eurozone, basis of competitiveness
Monday, December 10, 2018
Productivity is the key to resistance in the Eurozone, the basis of competitiveness, but it must not be achieved through low wages because otherwise we are bound to remain a peripheral economy, Daniel Daianu, member of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Board of Administration stated on Wednesday at the debate titled "The Romanian economic model in the EU. Romania - 2040 Horizon."According to him the currency risk disappears in the Eurozone but not the solvency ...
Romania’s unexpected GDP growth rate in Q3 boosted by good crops
Monday, December 10, 2018
Romania’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the index widely used to measure the size of national economies, rose by 4.3 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period of 2017, to RON 263.7 billion (EUR 56.7 billion), mainly due to good crops, according to National Institute of Statistics (INS) data released on Friday quoted by http://business-review.eu. The report ...
International reserves – November 2018
Monday, December 10, 2018
On 30 November 2018, the National Bank of Romania’s foreign exchange reserves stood at EUR 32,531 million, compared to EUR 32,369 million on 31 October 2018. During the month, the following flows were recorded: EUR 931 million worth of inflows representing changes in credit institutions’ foreign currency-denominated required reserves, inflows into the Ministry of Public Finance’s accounts, and ...
OTP Bank Romania, Eurobank Fund Management Luxembourg sign an agreement for the distribution of investment funds in Romania
Monday, December 10, 2018
OTP Bank Romania signed a partnership with Eurobank Fund Management Company (Luxembourg) for the distribution of investment funds in Romania. Thus, from December 1st, OTP Bank Romania becomes the distributor and paying agent in Romania for mutual investment funds managed by Eurobank Fund Management. “The partnership with Eurobank Fund Management Company is an opportunity to grow OTP Bank Romania’s portfolio, both in terms of investment ...
Government hit by the “invisible hand” of the market as its borrowing costs jump more than social spending
Monday, December 10, 2018
Romanian government borrowing costs rose by 25.5 percent during the first ten months of this year up to RON 11.2 billion (EUR 2.4 billion) as it pays higher interest rates in order to cover its soaring spending on wages and pensions, according to official data consulted by Business Review. in January-October 2017, interest expenses of the government amounted RON 8.9 billion. Interest expenses growth rate outpaced during the ...
Isarescu: Over 13 bln euro worth of EIB financing extended to Romania since early 1990s
Monday, December 10, 2018
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has provided Romania with over 13 billion euro worth of financing for almost 130 projects since the start of their cooperation in the early 1990s, being an important pillar for the country's economic strategic development, governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Mugur Isarescu told the conference on Investment and Investment Finance in Romania organized on the 60th anniversary of the EIB.2018 was a year rich in lessons for ...
Alpha Bank to launch EUR 1 bln mortgage bonds in Romania
Monday, December 10, 2018
The Greek financial group Alpha Bank prepares the launch of the first mortgage bonds program in Romania, according to the bank. In 2001, Alpha Bank Romania launched its first real estate loan, opening the market of financing for the purchase of housing through bank credit. The general meeting of shareholders of Alpha Bank Romania approved the ...
EIB: Romania has plenty of sources of financing; the lack of projects is the issue
Monday, December 10, 2018
Andrew McDowell, the vice president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), said that obtaining financing for projects is not an issue for Romania, as there are plenty of sources, but that the issue is the insufficient effort put into projects, which thus can’t attract more European money, both when it comes to public as well as private investments. In this regard, Romania ranks among the last places in the European Union, according to the ...