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Financial & Banking
President Iohannis promulgated amended Giving in Payment Law
Monday, May 18, 2020
Romania's President Klaus Iohannis signed, on May 13, the revised Giving in Payment Law, by which a debtor is discharged of any obligations toward its creditor by handing over the property subject of the mortgage loan. The revised law establishes precisely the minimum depreciation of the local currency for which the foreign exchange evolution can be considered unpredictable, allowing the debtor to invoke the bill and pass the property to the bank with ...
Raiffeisen Bank, net profit down 21% in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019
Monday, May 18, 2020
Raiffeisen Bank made a net profit of 140 million lei in the first quarter of this year, down 21% from the same period in 2019, when it was 178 million lei, according to a bank press release sent on Thursday.Raiffeisen Bank's total assets exceeded 48 billion lei as of March 31, 2020, an increase of 18% year-on-year. Operating revenues increased in Q1 2020, standing at 636 million lei, as compared to 615 million lei in Q1 2019.The bank's total loan ...
BRD has so far deferred payment of installments for more than 41,000 individual customers
Monday, May 18, 2020
BRD - Groupe Societe Generale has deferred the payment of installments for more than 41,000 individual customers from mid-March to date, both through OUG 37/2020 and as part of its own deferral solution, the bank says in a release on Thursday. According to the bank statement, the number of deferred payment loans thus exceeds 46,000, since the number of customers requested the postponement of several credits. About 62pct of approved deferral requests were for ...
BVB goes up by 4.6 percent in April as investors positively re-evaluate the Romanian companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic
Monday, May 18, 2020
The companies listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) went up by 4.63 percent last month, taking into account the issuers included in the BET index, which comprises the most traded 17 companies. The largest monthly increase so far this year occurred as investors positively re-evaluated the Romanian companies listed on BVB as the coronavirus pandemic ...
Banks in Romania have donated over RON 23.5 M so far in the fight against COVID-19
Monday, May 18, 2020
Banks in Romania have donated RON 23.5 million so far in the fight against COVID-19, with contributions being directed to buy medical equipment and devices to support the local healthcare system and the affected patients, according to centralized data by banks. Therefore, over 220 hospitals have been supported by banks in Romania to purchase medical supplies and equipment and over NGOs have benefited by financial aid to carry out activities to counter ...
European retail banks need to reduce costs by over EUR 35 billion to survive the pandemic
Monday, May 18, 2020
Banks across Europe will need to save nearly EUR 80 per customer and swiftly digitise to weather the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis from global consultancy partnership Kearney has found that the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession will mean that banks across Europe need to rethink their strategies and reduce their costs by over EUR 35 billion to overcome this crisis. Now in its 11th year, Kearney’s European Retail ...
FNGCIMM: Banks need to become more involved in economy, leave their comfort zone
Monday, May 11, 2020
Banks should leave their comfort zone and become more active and involved in the economics area, Cristian Paun, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National SME Credit Guarantee Fund (FNGCIMM), told on Thursday a new edition of the "vorbIMM" video-conference. "We all need to get out of our comfort zone and take some risks, some responsibility. I am talking here about the state which, through the Fund, has decided to become the partner of these ...
BRD Group, net profit smaller by 22 pct in Q1
Monday, May 11, 2020
The net profit of the BRD Group has dropped to 241 million lei in the first quarter of the year 2020 over 301 million in the first quarter of the year 2019, influenced by the cost of risk, after recognizing a provision in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, according to a release of the bank sent on Wednesday."In the first three months of the year, BRD had a dynamic commercial development. The bank recorded a robust activity in all segments, with a continual ...
ASF: Mandatory private pension funds had assets worth 60.17 billion lei in March, up 17.77 pct
Monday, May 11, 2020
Mandatory private pension funds had assets worth over 60.17 billion lei, as of March 31, 2020, up 17.77% from the same level last month, but down 4.26% compared to the previous month, according to the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF).Government securities made up the largest share of the assets, of 38.88 billion lei, respectively 64.62%. Shares came in second, at 11.07 billion lei (18.40%). Corporate bonds ranked third in this respect, at 4.64 billion lei, ...
Govt. is looking to borrow EUR 1.2 bln from the population
Monday, May 11, 2020
Romania's Finance Ministry plans to attract some RON 6 billion (EUR 1.2 bln) from the population as it has to finance a considerable budget deficit this year. The Treasury is currently preparing to resume the mechanism used in 2015 and 2016 for issuing government securities through the banking system. The papers will then trade on the Bucharest Stock ...
ING Bank: Romania can’t avoid multilateral agreement with IFIs
Monday, May 11, 2020
The pressure to finance its high budget deficit will push Romania towards a multilateral financing agreement with international financial institutions (IFIs). The agreement will be similar to that signed in 2009 and is likely to happen by early next year, ING Bank Romania says in its latest research report. Romania won't be able to avoid tax hikes next year, with VAT being the main candidate here, ING analysts ...
OTP Bank Romania registered loss of RON 10.7 M for Q1 of 2020
Monday, May 11, 2020
OTP Group announces the financial results for the first quarter of 2020. According to the report published in Budapest, which presents the consolidated results adjusted in accordance with the Group´s standards, OTP Bank Romania has registered a loss of RON 10,7 million (HUF 0,9 billion) in the first three months of the year. The evolution was influenced by the threefold increase of risk costs, in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic. Operating ...
Raiffeisen Romania’s bonds to be floated on May 15
Monday, May 11, 2020
Raiffeisen Bank on May 6 received the approval from the financial markets supervisor (ASF) for the bond listing prospectus. Thus, its bonds launched in December 2019 are to be traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange starting May 14, 2020. In December 2019, Raiffeisen Bank issued through a private placement the first subordinated bonds in local currency on the local market with a maturity of 10 years. The bond issue has a value of ...
First Bank finalized acquisition of Bank Leumi Romania
Monday, May 11, 2020
First Bank, owned by the American investment fund J.C. Flowers & Co., concluded the legal and operational merger with Bank Leumi Romania, a subsidiary of Bank Leumi Israel, thus finalizing the transaction initiated in the summer of 2019, according to a bank's release sent on Tuesday.This merger has become a complex process due to the pandemic. Our teams have had to keep their distance and work from home, but were fully supported by the Boards of Directors of ...
Coface: COVID-19 swings the spotlight back onto emerging countries’ debt
Monday, May 11, 2020
While the focus so far has mainly been on China, Europe, and the United States, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to be even more severe for emerging economies. Even though their degree of vulnerability to this shock depends on many factors, the starting point of their public finances is a key issue, as it determines their capacity to respond to the crisis’ many economic consequences. However, their public debt was ...
BCR posts 60% stronger profit in Q1
Monday, May 11, 2020
Romanian lender BCR, part of Austrian group Erste Bank Group, announced a net profit of RON 428 million (EUR 89.3 mln) in the first quarter of the year (Q1), up 60% compared to the same period of the previous year. It says that the performance was due to the higher operating result and the positive impact of significant recoveries from non-performing customers. Net interest income increased by 9.4% to RON 598 mln (EUR 125 mln), ...
Banca Transilvania sees 40% profit drop in Q1
Monday, May 11, 2020
Banca Transilvania, the largest bank in Romania by assets, reported its net profit dropped by 40% in the first quarter of the year (Q1) to RON 261 million (EUR 53.8 mln). The entire financial group Banca Transilvania reported a net profit of RON 304 mln (EUR 62.7 mln), also down 40% compared to the same period last year. "We had a strong start of the year, but, after the first two months, we had to quickly adapt to a new reality ...
BNR: Monetary indicators – March 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
At end-March 2020, broad money (M3) amounted to RON 433,934.7 million, up 2.5 percent (1.9 percent in real terms) month on month. In year-on-year comparison, broad money rose by 13.3 percent (9.9 percent in real terms), Central bank (BNR) announced. At end-March 2020, loans to non-government sector granted by credit institutions grew 0.6 percent (0.1 percent in real terms) from February 2020 to RON 272,551.0 million. ...
Moody’s worsened the rating perspective for BCR, BRD and Raiffeisen Bank
Monday, May 4, 2020
Moody’s Investors Service revised from stable to negative the rating perspective of three banks in Romania – Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), BRD – Groupe Societe Generale (BRD) and Raiffeisen Bank – and confirmed at ‘Baa1’ the ratings attributed for the long termn deposits and at ‘Baa3’ the qualifications for long term deposits in foreign currency, shows the press release of the agency for financial evaluation.The ...
Deloitte: the authorities need a plan for the increase of collections to the budget for a longer time
Monday, May 4, 2020
The situation of the budget could improve slightly in April, due to the boost offered for the payment on time of the profit tax, but the authorities need a plan for the growth of collection to the budget for a longer time, considers Vlad Boeriu, partner Fiscal Services Deloitte Romania. ‘The drop in income to the state budget reported by the ministry of public finances through budgetary execution at three months, confirms the expectations, ...