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Financial & Banking
IMF Forecasts Weaker Economic Growth For Romania
Monday, April 22, 2024
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded its growth projections for the Romanian economy this year. The latest “World Economic Outlook” report from the IMF revises the estimate from 3.8% in October to 2.8% According to the IMF’s new forecasts, after an advance of 2.1% last year, the economy will grow to 2.8% this year, accelerating to 3.6% in 2025. In October, the IMF estimated an ...
Alpha Bank to expand further in Romania
Monday, April 22, 2024
Alpha Bank chief executive officer Vassilis Psaltis pointed to further expansion and acquisitions in Romania in a joint interview with CEO of Italian bank UniCredit, Andrea Orcel for Bloomberg quoted by https://www.ekathimerini.com/, The two CEOs, who have created the third-largest bank in Romania, said they believe in Romania’s prospects and see plenty of value ...
BNR: Balance of payments and external debt – February 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024
According to the National Bank of Romania (BNR) data, in January – February 2024p, the balance-of-payments current account posted a deficit of EUR 2,707 million, compared with EUR 2,171 million in January – February 2023. The breakdown shows that the deficit on trade in goods declined by EUR 39 million, the surplus on services fell by EUR 456 million, the primary income deficit increased by EUR 516 million, while the secondary income registered a surplus of ...
Daianu:Fiscal consolidation process will be painful, it is desirable to be carried out fairly
Monday, April 15, 2024
Fiscal consolidation will be a painful process and it is desirable to conduct it fairly, said on Tuesday the chairman of the Fiscal Council, Daniel Daianu, who warned that the "bulk" of the adjustment cannot be achieved on the expenditure side."Let's not delude ourselves with the anecdotal: there are 15 workers at a town hall, in fact there should be only four... That's anecdotal. Of course, municipalities can do something in the local environment, schemes can be greatly ...
Salt Bank makes digital debut in Romania powered by Starling Bank’s BaaS
Monday, April 15, 2024
Salt Bank has become Romania’s newest digital challenger with the launch of its app-based offering this month, https://www.fintechfutures.com/ informs. The Bucharest-based challenger, which operates as a subsidiary of Banca Transilvania Financial Group, has debuted its retail banking services including 3% current accounts with digital wallet compatibility, mixed term deposits, a multicurrency card ...
Romania International Remittance Business Analysis Report 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024
The "Romania International ...
Fitch Affirms Romanian City of Bucharest at 'BBB-'; Outlook Stable
Monday, April 15, 2024
Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Romanian City of Bucharest's Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) at 'BBB-' with Stable Outlooks. The affirmation reflects Fitch's unchanged view that the city's operating performance and debt ratios will remain in line with peers', with 'aa' debt sustainability over the medium term. This is despite pressures on its budget stemming from still high inflation ...
Iohannis: 2023 statistics show that 30% of Romanians fall within minimum level of financial literacy
Monday, April 15, 2024
Statistics from 2023 show that 30% of Romanians fall within the minimum level of financial literacy, which is not the direct consequence of recent developments, but the effect in time of financial training deficits, according to a speech by President Klaus Iohannis delivered at the second edition of the Financial Education Forum on the digital safety of users of financial products and services."The complexity of financial services in the context of new technologies ...
Unicredit Quarterly Report: Increasing Likelihood Of Tax Hikes In 2025
Monday, April 15, 2024
In its macroeconomic quarterly report, Unicredit expect the Romanian economy to grow by 2.7% in 2024 and by 1.9% in 2025, with the government tightening fiscal policy only after this year’s elections. “Domestic demand will drive growth this year, with exports likely to play a more important role in 2025. We expect inflation to miss the target in 2024-25, with the NBR cutting rates to 6% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025, even if taxes are ...
NBR Board decisions on monetary policy
Monday, April 8, 2024
In its meeting of 4 April 2024, the Board of the National Bank of Romania decided: to keep the monetary policy rate at 7.00 percent per annum; to leave unchanged the lending (Lombard) facility rate at 8.00 percent per annum and the deposit facility rate at 6.00 percent per ...
BRD And IFC Partner To Boost Sustainable Finance In Romania
Monday, April 8, 2024
BRD Groupe Societe Generale and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, have closed a landmark synthetic significant risk transfer (SRT) transaction that will free up capital for BRD to boost the financing of impactful sustainability-related projects in Romania. Under the transaction, IFC will provide a risk guarantee on an up to €700 million BRD portfolio of small and medium enterprise (SME) and ...
Investigation ‘Resilient Crime’: 22 arrests in raid against criminal organisation suspected of €600 million fraud involving NextGenerationEU funds
Monday, April 8, 2024
In the context of an international large-scale investigation led by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Venice (Italy), dozens of searches and seizures took place, and 22 arrests were made today in Italy, Austria, Romania and Slovakia, in a probe into an alleged criminal organisation suspected of defrauding €600 million from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for ...
CITR Has Completed The Report On The Causes Of Euroins Bankruptcy
Monday, April 8, 2024
CITR Bucharest SPRL, the judicial liquidator of Euroins, has completed the report on the causes of Euroins’ bankruptcy and identified a series of operational and fund management elements that led to bankruptcy. “The preparation of the report on the causes is an essential stage in the bankruptcy procedure. On one hand, it concludes the stage of historical and contextual ...
Salt Bank: The first 100% Romanian neobank was launched
Monday, April 8, 2024
Salt Bank was officially launched on the market, marking the beginning of a new digital era. Differentiating itself from traditional banks, Salt Bank aims to be more than a bank: a 100% digital experience, adapted to users’ contemporary needs. With a clear vision of the future, Salt combines the financial stability of a bank with the agility of a FinTech, offering a new perspective on banking: safe but ...
EVOLUTION OF THE PRIVATE PENSION SYSTEM IN 2023
Monday, April 8, 2024
The private pension market in Romania reached, at the end of 2023, total assets worth RON 131.5 billion, up by 31.4% compared to the end of the previous year. As a share of GDP, total private pension assets stood at around 8.5% at the end of December 2023, marking a positive development over recent years. In the last quarter of 2023 and for the year as a whole, the volatility of unit net assets of ...
EVOLUTION OF CAPITAL MARKET IN 2023
Monday, April 8, 2024
The local capital market recorded positive developments in 2023, with the total value traded on the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) and on the Multilateral Trading System (MTF) reaching RON 38.04 billion, an increase of over 58% compared to the previous year. The number of trades on BVB - on the regulated market and MTF - amounted to almost 1.98 million in 2023 and increased ...
EVOLUTION OF INSURANCE MARKET IN 2023
Monday, April 8, 2024
Insurance companies authorised and regulated by the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) wrote gross written premiums (GWP) of approximately RON 18.2 billion in 2023, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year. The Romanian insurance market remains oriented towards general insurance, which accounts for 84% of total gross premiums written by insurance companies authorised and regulated by ASF, ...
Competition Council considers OTP group Romania takeover by Transylvania Bank
Monday, April 8, 2024
The Competition Council analyses the transaction by which Transylvania Bank SA intends to take over OTP Bank Romania SA, the competition authority informs in a press release. Transylvania Bank is the main company of Transylvania Bank Financial Group, which offers financial services in Romania, such as bank services, investment services, portfolio administration services and ...
The National Committee for Macroprudential Oversight meeting of 28 March 2024
Monday, April 1, 2024
The first meeting in 2024 of the General Board of the National Committee for Macroprudential Oversight (NCMO) was held on 28 March 2024. During the meeting, Board members examined analyses and adopted measures concerning macroprudential policy and systemic risk, namely: (i) the regular analysis on the recalibration of the countercyclical capital buffer and (ii) the draft Annual Report of the National Committee for Macroprudential ...
Monetary indicators - February 2024
Monday, April 1, 2024
According to Central bank’s data, at end-February 2024, broad money (M3) amounted to RON 677,932.3 million, up 1.3 percent (0.5 percent inreal terms) month on month. In year-on-year comparison, broad money rose by 10.7 percent (3.3 percent in real terms). At end-February ...