The establishment of the National Bank of Romania (NBR) in 1880 was a momentous achievement that marked both the series of reforms aimed at modernising the Romanian society and the worldwide assertion of the Romanian state shortly after gaining European recognition.
After half a century from the first bill on establishing a national bank, the Discount and Circulation Bank Law was published in Official Gazette No. 90 of 17/29 April 1880. According to the said law, the NBR was set up as an anonymous company with subscribed capital amounting to leu 30,000,000 and enjoying the note-printing right. The state held one-third of the share capital in the newly-established entity and individuals accounted for the remaining two-thirds. The NBR started to operate on 1 December 1880 and its first branches were opened the very next year in Iaşi, Galaţi, Brăila and Craiova.
Pursuant to the laws passed in 1890-92, Romania’s government and central bank decided to shift from the bimetallic to the monometallic system (gold). In 1890, the bank’s seven divisions were relocated to the Palace on Lipscani Street, an edifice whose completion had a decisive influence on the architectural style of the other buildings in the financial and banking area of Bucharest. The institution operated as a privately-owned central bank from 1901 to 1925, but retained its national responsibilities. On the eve of World War I, the branch network of the NBR enjoyed nationwide coverage and encompassed 33 units, i.e. 4 branches and 29 agencies.
Throughout World War I, the NBR provided financing for the Romanian government to support the latter’s war effort. The raging war forced the central bank’s Board members to flee to Iaşi and accept the Treasury’s transfer to Moscow; it turned out that these assets could no longer be retrieved. After helping achieve the Grand Union of 1918, including 21 staff who lost their lives, the NBR tackled several challenges, of which the following deserve mention: the post-war economic crisis, restoration of the leu convertibility, the monetary unification, and the expansion of the territorial network across Great Romania to a total of 70 units. After the state became again part of its shareholding in 1925, the institution played a role in the project of stabilising the currency in 1929, in controlling the trade in gold and foreign currencies, as well as in the operations of converting farming debt and organising and regulating bank trading – the 1934 law. During World War II, the central bank supported the government by covering military expenditures and taking measures to curb inflation and rescue its Treasury.
With the advent to power of the communist regime, the NBR was first nationalised (1946), then its name was changed to the Bank of the People’s Republic of Romania, a state-run bank (1948), being subordinated to the Ministry of Finance. The currency reform of 1947 was followed by that of 1952, both of them bearing a conspicuous ideological imprint. In 1990, the NBR resumed its normal functions of a central bank, similarly to the other central banks in Europe and worldwide, its primary objective being to ensure and maintain price stability.
In 2010, the NBR celebrates its 130th anniversary by organising a number of scientific and cultural events all the year round: seminars and conferences on various topics such as banking history, exhibitions, stamp and anniversary medal issues, as well as “The Cultural Days of the NBR”.