Foreign banks have maintained their exposure to Romania

The heads of the nine foreign banks that committed last spring to preserve their exposure on the Romanian market will meet representatives of the NBR and of the International Monetary Fund on July 22 in Brussels for the half -yearly review of the arrangement. The meeting is likely to be calm as the foreign groups have, at least up until now, stuck to their commitment, and none of the banks asked to significantly reduce their exposure.
“They continue to be very close to the agreed level. None of the foreign banks has asked me personally to approve a reduction of their exposure,” says Nicolae Cinteza, head of the Supervisory Department of the NBR, which monitors operations and balance sheets of all banks in the system.
At stake for the time being is the financing of the budget deficit, with banks investing most of their cash in government securities, as lending demand from the private sector remains very weak. On the other hand, bankers are no longer as generous as in past years, and now demand higher guarantees and interest rates, to match the higher risk of not getting their money back.
After the Brussels talks, a delegation of the Fund will come to Bucharest on July 26 to conduct the fifth review of the arrangement with Romania. Subsequently the IMF management will decide if the sixth tranche of the loan, amounting to around 900 million euros, is released.