20 iun 2013

Romania’s Finance Ministry borrows in lei at costs 2% higher than the yield paid by Poland for t bonds in zloty, although the two countries have the same financing needs in ratio with the size of more

17 iun 2013

Insolvent and bankrupt companies in Romania had overdue debts of 9 billion lei (EUR2 billion) at the end of April for loans taken out from banks, which translates into nearly 40% of corporate more

14 iun 2013

The second day of ZF Bankers Summit ’13 brought up the weaknesses in the economy and the issue of insolvencies weighing on banks’ loan portfolios. One solution would be for the state to more

13 iun 2013

Bankers are awaiting the return of economic growth before genuinely restarting lending, but they admit there are good some businesses worth more attention, even at this time, when there are no signals more

12 iun 2013

Romanian state-run lender EximBank Wednesday announced plans to open two new units by the end of 2013, taking advantage of a favorable climate in the local market. more

6 iun 2013

Six of the nine largest general insurers reported higher gross written premiums in the first quarter of the year, while the other three recorded double-digit business declines. more

5 iun 2013

Tomas Spurny, the Czech-American recruited last year by Austrian group Erste to run BCR, is one of the guests at this year’s edition of the ZF Bankers Summit, where he will discuss the extensive more

3 iun 2013

The state-guaranteed “First Home” program launched in 2009 is close to running out of funds, with EUR160 million left for loans. Banks have granted 92,000 “First home” loans out of a total more

31 mai 2013

The top ten banks by the volume of deposits held 80% of individuals’ and companies’ savings, with the cumulated value of resources attracted at 173 billion lei (EUR39 billion). more

23 mai 2013

Raiffeisen Bank was the most profitable bank in Romania last year, posting 392 million lei (EUR90 million) in net profit. more

21 mai 2013

Bank customers in Romania withdrew more than 26 billion lei (EUR6 billion) from their cards in January-March, while payments at POS-es installed at retailers amounted to RON4.3 billion, according to more

15 mai 2013

Steven van Groningen, chief executive of Raiffeisen Bank, says loan interest rates will be gradually cut, but the cuts will be made depending on market conditions, not because somebody ordered it. more

2 mai 2013

Despite the scandal surrounding the suspension of the activity at the Bank of Cyprus for almost a month and despite talks on the risk of putting money in deposits at high interest rates, Greek and more

23 apr 2013

More than 3,400 employees working in bank branches in Romania left last year in the harshest restructuring phase since the onset of the crisis, while 320 branches closed. Six times fewer people (about more

22 apr 2013

Insurer Astra held by businessman Dan Adamescu posted net profit of 6.7 million lei (EUR1.53 million) in 2012, down from RON81 million in 2011 because of the significant decline in revenue from more

17 apr 2013

Banks have ended up foreclosing on 2,000 homes per month as they seek to recoup money from bad payers, according to ZF calculations based on the difference between the rise in the number of loans and more

16 apr 2013

Romania alongside Greece and Ireland, two countries that allocated billions of euros to save their banks, are the European countries with the highest rates of non-performing loans (NPLs). more

15 apr 2013

Volksbank Romania, the local unit of Austria’s Volksbank AG, plans to keep the interest rate on savings products above the market average to balance the loan to deposit ratio and increase the number more

11 apr 2013

Foreign insurers brought EUR450 million to the capital of Romanian subsidiaries since the beginning of the economic crisis in order to cover ‘loopholes’ of over half a billion euros triggered by more

10 apr 2013

The tension generated among clients by the closure of the Bucharest unit has not become apparent yet. more

9 apr 2013

Bancpost and Banca Romaneasca, which were set to merge into a bank with EUR4 billion assets ranking 7th on the Romanian market, will remain two separate entities for the time being after the merger more

4 apr 2013

Early redemptions of life insurance policies reached record highs in 2012, as need for cash stayed high. more

28 mar 2013

The foreign currency deposits of individuals and companies in Romania have risen by the equivalent of EUR2.3 billion in the past year, with more than a third of the amounts being transferred from more

14 mar 2013

Mortgage loans sold through the ‘First Home’ scheme now account for almost 40% of the total home buying loans, meaning bankers passed 20% of the risk on to the government, which pays half of the more

12 mar 2013

The capital of the foreign-held banks in Romania amounted to 19.7 billion lei (EUR4.5 billion) at the end of last year and accounted for almost 80% of the total capital of the banking system, more