Banking development still hindered

The inflation, which is still high, the domestic deficit not correlated with the inflation, the operating costs for the financial services that are still large and the spread between the interests on credits and the interests on deposits are among the most important factors that keep the banking system insufficiently developed, said Misu Negritoiu, ING Bank Romania deputy general manager. The operating infrastructure of the market remains obsolete, given that the trading systems are still rudimentary, and the payment system that relies on cash is based on paper instead of being an electronic one. “There is a high corporate banking intermediation level, but the retail intermediation level is low. The appetite of the people in Romania for opening an account is still low,” Negritoiu said, adding that according to the findings of a series of recent surveys, Romanians open an account only if they have to and there is no way around it. “A loan is the last resort. Less than 30% of the people in Romania have bank accounts open at the moment,” Negritoiu says. He believes there is room for improvement at the corporate banking level, too. ZF