Banca Naţională a României

European Commission and IMF welcome the continued support by the parent banks of the largest foreign-owned banks for Romania

In a meeting of the European Bank Coordination Initiative held on 16 March 2011 in Brussels, the parent banks of the nine largest foreign-owned credit institutions operating in Romania affirmed their long-term commitment to the country. Along with the new precautionary financial assistance programme as requested by Romania for approval by the IMF and the EU, this long-term commitment will help Romania to further consolidate investor confidence and return the economy to a sustainable growth path.

Representatives of the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund met on 16 March 2011 in Brussels with the nine parent banks of the largest foreign-owned credit institutions with subsidiaries in Romania (Erste Group Bank, Raiffeisen Group, Eurobank EFG, National Bank of Greece, UniCredit Group, Société Générale, Alpha Bank, Volksbank International and Piraeus Bank). The meeting was also attended by representatives of the National Bank of Romania, the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank as well as the home country authorities. The European Central Bank attended as an observer.

It was the fifth country meeting of the European Banking Coordination Initiative for Romania, following those held in 2009 and 2010. Participants expressed satisfaction that, throughout the programme period, parent banks have largely honoured their exposure commitments to Romania at group level. Furthermore, parent banks also met their commitment to provide ex-ante additional capital for 2009 and 2010, so that the capital adequacy ratio of their subsidiaries has remained above 10% throughout the programme period. Banks will continue to maintain solvency well above the level of 10%.

Participants also reiterated the key role the European Bank Coordination Initiative has played in helping Romania withstand the peak phase of the economic and financial downturn. Banks collectively expressed interest in appropriately maintaining or expanding exposure to Romania. In the context of the EBCI participants agreed to regular discussions to take forward these issues.

During the meeting, participants were briefed on the progress in fulfilling the policy conditions under the current financial assistance programme. Furthermore, participants were also informed about the main policy conditions included in the new two-year precautionary financial assistance programme, requested by Romania for approval by both the EU and the IMF and amounting to about EUR 5 billion.

Source: European Commission