CEC deal cancelled

The Government decided to cancel the contract under which CEC (The Romanian Savings Bank) and the German bank LBS Bayerische Landesbausparkasse should have set up, early this year, a bank specialising in saving/credit operations, for the purchase, construction or modernisation of houses. Putting the contract into practice was postponed several times and failed to eventually take place. In the end, the state, the single shareholder of CEC represented through the Ministry of Public Finances, has come to the conclusion that restructuring surrogates were no longer working. This is due to the fact that the bank has found itself in freefall and will probably need considerable time before a future buyer can turn it around, Finance Minister Mihai Tanasescu said, announcing the management reshuffle at CEC. Starting Monday, CEC has a new chairman, with Constantin Teculescu being replaced by Enache Jiru, a former secretary of state with the Ministry of Public Finances. ZF