Romanian Bank System’s Solid Capitalization Protects It From Intl Crisis – Bker

"I think that it is unfair to say that the Romanian banking system wasn’t affected because it is primitive. Our banks’ problems are to identify new resources, local and foreign, to maintain a healthy lending portfolio," Isarescu said.

 

The governor said most of the banks’ operations are made on the local market, where there still is a solid lending growth, but the new central bank’s regulations to temper the lending will maintain a healthy portfolio.

 

Romanian private lending rose by 39.2% on the year in August in real terms to 183.63 billion lei ($74 billion), a slowdown compared with the annual rise of 42.9% in July, the central bank reported Tuesday.

 

“Even if several parent banks have reported losses following their exposure to the US banks that went bankrupt, these losses have not affected the operations of the banks in Romania,” Isarescu said.

 

Isarescu said that the minimum required reserves ratio is a very important instrument, which will be used by the bank to meet a temporary need for liquidity.

The central bank has set a minimum required reserve ratio of 20% for leu-denominated liabilities and 40% for foreign currency-denominated liabilities.