Three foreign banks capitalise branches with 180m euros

Three second tier banks – Banca Romaneasca, Credit Europe Bank and Millennium Bank, received capital injections from their shareholders in the first half of the year that equalled 180 million euros. Bankers say the valuation methods used by the NBR require a tight correlation of capital and operations, which forces them to resort to capital increases to be able to continue developing their business. The Greeks at NBG, the majority shareholder of Banca Romaneasca, brought 172 million RON (more than 46 million euros at the then exchange rate) in May and have a similar capital increase scheduled for the end of the year. The Turks at Credit Europe Bank (the former Finansbank) approved a capital increase worth 375 million RON (almost 106 million euros) for the local branch. The Portuguese at Millennium, who started operations on the Romanian market last autumn, approved a capital inflow of 92 million RON (25 million euros) at the beginning of this year, which took it to 64 million euros. Banca Transilvania, the only Romanian-held top ten bank has recently raised the equivalent of 30 million euros from its shareholders, with subscription reaching 94%.