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Financial & Banking
Monetary indicators – February 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
According to the Central bank data, at end-February 2019, broad money (M3) amounted to RON 384,993.5 million, up 0.6 percent (down 0.2 percent in real terms) month on month. In year-on-year comparison, broad money rose 9.2 percent (5.2 percent in real terms). At end-February 2019, non-government loans granted by credit institutions declined by 0.1 percent (down 0.9 percent in real terms) from January 2019 to RON 251,948.4 ...
Speech at the Conference ”The 41th Meeting of the Central Banks Governors’ Club of the Central Asia, Black Sea region and Balkan countries”
Monday, April 1, 2019
* Central Bank Communication as a policy tool - an ongoing challenge - Mugur Isarescu, BNR ( Romanian Central Bank) Governor As prepared for delivery Distinguished audience,Dear colleagues, It is a great pleasure for me to address this distinguished panel on a topic that is both important and challenging ...
Conference National Asset - Liability Management Europe 2019 Summit
Monday, March 25, 2019
Speech Liviu Voinea, Deputy Governor NBR Summary The post-crisis Phillips curve makes 3 fundamental changes to the wage Philips curve: it uses observable variables only; it changes the paradigm from flow to stock; and it allows the curve to be non-stationary. We introduce the concept of a cumulative wage ...
Romania aims at accession to the Euro zone but structural reforms are necessary for a solid budgetary consolidation
Monday, March 25, 2019
Romania aims at the accession to the Euro Zone but for this purpose structural reforms are necessary to support real convergence and solid budgetary consolidation, shows in the study ‘ The multi-annual post-2020 financial framework: risks and opportunities for Romania’.‘Romania aims at accession to the EZ. For this purpose structural reforms are necessary to support real convergence, a solid budgetary consolidation. To keep in mind are the ...
Libra Internet Bank signed two conventions with FNGC/IMM for the improvement of the access of Romanian farmers for financing
Monday, March 25, 2019
Libra Internet Bank signed recently two conventions with the National Fund for Guarantee of the loans for SMEs with a view to improving the access of the Romanian farmers to financing, through which the acquisition of agricultural land is financed, other investments or the development of the current activity, with guarantee of up to 80% on the part of the fund of guarantee.Similarly, Libra is one of the five banks of Romania who take part in the ...
Current account deficit up 16 times, in January 2019 against January 2018
Monday, March 25, 2019
The current account deficit increased 16 times in January this year compared with the same period of last year, in the context in which, according to the data released by the National Bank of Romania (BNR), in the first month of this year, the balance-of-payments current account registered a deficit of 114 million euros, compared with 7 million euros, in January 2018."In structure, the balance of goods registered a deficit higher by 476 million euros, and the ...
EBRD delegation visits Romania for talks to scale up investment
Monday, March 25, 2019
A high level EBRD delegation led by Jurgen Rigterink, First Vice President, and Alain Pilloux, Vice President, Banking, arrived in Bucharest last Monday for talks with the Romanian authorities and the business community. Discussions were focusing on the investment climate, ways to finance ...
Isarescu: Abuse of exchange rate fluctuation can be as damaging to economy as abuse of rigidity
Monday, March 25, 2019
Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Mugur Isarescu said on Tuesday in Constanta that abuse of exchange rate fluctuation can be as damaging to the good functioning of the economy as the abuse of rigidity, mentioning that the BNR cannot lead the exchange rate where it wants."With regard to the current differences between countries in terms of euro adoption, some may find it odd that Bulgaria, which is still behind the real convergence, is considering a ...
Court of Auditors identifies damages of RON 350m, non-collected incomes of RON 932m in 2017
Monday, March 25, 2019
The Court of Auditors has identified damages worth RON 350 million and non-collected incomes of RON 932 million, following the controls carried out last year for the financial year 2017, according to the ‘Public Report for 2017’, posted on the institution’s website on Monday. The authors of the report show that, in the additional revenues of RON 931.54 million, an important share of about 45% is represented by the revenues ...
În 2018, Romania’s insurance market up 4.5 pct
Monday, March 25, 2019
The Romanian insurance market rose by 4.5 percent last year to RON 10.1 billion (EUR 2.2 billion), due mainly to a surge in health insurance segment, Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) data show. The car insurance segment maintains its dominant position, with compulsory car insurance (RCA) accounting for 35.6 percent of the insurance market in 2018, according to ASF. The average RCA premium declined by 12 percent last year to ...
EBRD increases by 5 million euro loan granted to Agricover IFN Credit
Monday, March 25, 2019
EBRD credits Agricover Credit IFN, a company specialised in financing the farming sector in Romania by another 5 million euro. The loan will allow the company to support the local farmers' financing needs and increase the customer portfolio according to a bank press release. According to the document, the loan represents a new financing granted to Agricover Credit IFN, the first 10 million euro loan being granted last ...
Mutual funds net assets rose by 2.4 percent last month to RON 42 billion
Monday, March 25, 2019
The net assets of the 203 open and closed funds, local and foreign, rose 2.4 percent in February to RON 42 billion (EUR 8.8 billion), registering an increase of 0.1 percent since the beginning of the year, while the net outflows of the month totaled RON 207 million (EUR 43.7 million), according to the Association of Fund Managers (AAF). In January, the net assets of the 206 open and closed funds, local and foreign, decreased by 2.2 percent to RON 41 ...
BNR drains EUR 1.3 bln excess liquidity from local banks
Monday, March 25, 2019
The Romanian central bank (BNR) has drained excess liquidity of RON 6.13 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) from the local banks on Monday, a move designed to support the national currency. It is the first move of this kind since January 21, a period when the Romanian currency was on steep depreciation trend. BNR drained the liquidity from 22 banks in its one-week deposit auction.“It is likely that banks retained some liquidity ...
Groupama recorded gross premiums of over RON 1 billion in 2018
Monday, March 25, 2019
The total volume of gross premiums recorded by Groupama Asigurari exceeded RON 1 billion in 2018, registering an increase of 8.7 percent compared to the previous year. At the same time, the company posted an operating profit of RON 44 million, but reported an IFRS contribution of RON 9 million, amid exceptional events that marked the insurance market in 2018. The company’s results are expected to be above the market rate in this period, ...
Banca Transilvania launches BT Open Banking, a platform that allows fintechs to test integration with bank services
Monday, March 25, 2019
fintechs and other technology companies to test integration with BT to present bank services, such as: online balancing, transaction history, and the initiation of transactions through external platforms to Banca Transilvania. PSD2 is a first step towards Open Banking and is a mandatory European directive for the banks in Romania, in the direction of the significant development of banking services. This implies the ...
Romanians now allowed to withdraw from Pillar II private pension funds
Monday, March 18, 2019
Individuals who have contributed to the Pillar II pension funds for at least 5 years will now be allowed to withdraw from the fund and the 3.75 percent of the social insurance payment total (25 percent of incomes) allocated for Pillar II will be directed to the public pension system, according to a new ANAF regulation that was recently published in the Official Gazette. The termination of the Pillar II contributions takes place in the month when the ...
ASF: the share in GDP of the private pensions went up to 5.22% in 2018
Monday, March 18, 2019
The share of the private pensions in the GDP went up, at the end of last year to 5.22% as compared to 4.84% in December 2017 while the value of the total assets in the administration at the level of the whole system of private pensions reached 49.60 billion lei (10.64 billion euro) up by 19.40% against the previous year, according to a press release of the Authority for financial supervision (ASF).On 31 December 2018 the highest share in the structure of the portfolio ...
Raiffeisen Bank International to reevaluate operations in Romania following GEO 114
Monday, March 18, 2019
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) will reevaluate its operations in Romania after the government imposed a new bank tax in a last-minute legislation in December, chief executive Johann Strobl announced on Wednesday, as quoted by Reuters. Raiffeisen holds EUR 8.97 billion euros, which is around 6 percent of its assets, in Romania. “We will need to reevaluate Romania,” Johann Strobl said in the ...
EU adopts tax haven blacklist
Monday, March 18, 2019
*The move triples the roster to 15 countries including Bermuda, the US Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates. EU finance ministers adopted a revised blacklist for tax havens outside the bloc, overcoming Romania’s bid to postpone a vote to May. The move triples the roster ...
EUR 50,000 funding for start-ups through Factory by Raiffeisen Bank
Monday, March 18, 2019
Entrepreneurship is the engine of economic growth in our country, says to 70 percent of the people according to an iVox study that also show shows 50.6 percent would like to become entrepreneurs and 34 percent Romanians who are employed are considering starting their own business provided they receive funding from a bank. According to a study by iVOX at the beginning of March, 70 percent of Romanians believe that entrepreneurship is the engine of ...