Romania, last in the EU in terms of access to financial services

Romania ranks bottom in the European Union in terms of the population’s access to financial services, with 23% of the total number of adult inhabitants having access to such services, according to a report published by the World Bank (WB). Top of the list is Holland, with 100% of the population having access to financial services, followed by Finland, Denmark and Luxembourg (99%) and Belgium (97%) according to the WB report titled “Finance for All”. Among the states in Central and Eastern Europe, the level in Hungary stands at 66% and Bulgaria at 56%. According to WB data on lending and saving services, in Romania there were 1,207.88 bank deposits per 1,000 people, whilst the average amount of deposits made by the Romanian population accounted for a quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. The international economic institution calculates a 2,719-dollar GDP per capita against 2003. The volume of loans granted by financial institutions to the private sector amounted to around 7% of the GDP in the 1999-2003 period. In terms of the penetration of bank branches and ATMs, the WB matches the number of bank facilities and complex instruments with similar functions against the geographical and demographic coordinates. As a result, according to WB data, there were 13.26 branches per 1,000 square kilometres and 12.02 ATMs per 1,000 square kilometres. Additionally, for every 100,000 people, there were 13.76 bank facilities and 12.47 ATMs.