Press release on Credit co-operative organisations
11.01.2001
The National Bank of Romania informs the interested parties and the public that Romania's Government Emergency Ordinance No. 272/2000 for altering and supplementing Romania's Government Emergency Ordinance No. 97/2000 on credit co-operative organisations was published in Monitorul Oficial al României, Part I, No. 676/19 December 2000.
In accordance with this piece of legislation, the credit co-operative organisations may request to be licensed by the National Bank of Romania by 13 February 2001.
We hereby remind the public that licensing is a long-lasting process implying a careful assessment of the credit co-operative organisations, including their creditworthiness. Under the circumstances, we underline that legal provisions may not be referred to for justifying the payment refusal or the rescheduling of the deposits made with credit co-operative organisations, for binding the depositors to transform their deposits in shares, nor for imposing any other abusive practices that some credit co-operatives - popular banks adopted.
We emphasise that the National Bank of Romania shall exert supervision on credit co-operative organisations or on banks resulted from the reorganisation of the present credit co-operatives - popular banks only after their licensing.
The credit co-operative organisations shall become part of the deposit guarantee system only after their licensing by the National Bank of Romania, provided they observe the legal provisions on the payment of the quotas to the Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund, while deposits shall be compensated only in the case of the central house's bankruptcy.
At present, households' deposits with the credit co-operatives - popular banks are not guaranteed and their recovery, in the case of payment refusal, shall be made solely by taking legal proceedings in court.