Parent Bks Overall Exposure To Romania Dn By EUR1.2B Since End-Mar – Sources

Officials of the parent banks met in Brussels last week with representatives of the Romanian central bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and other international lenders to review the commitments assumed by the nine banks regarding total exposure to Romania.

Overall exposure to Romania dropped by EUR600 million in the second quarter and by another EUR700 million in the third, participants in the meeting told MEDIAFAX.

They added the parent banks increased their exposure to Romania by EUR100 million in October, bringing the overall exposure to EUR30.3 billion, from EUR31.5 billion end-March.

Romania secured in the spring a EUR20 billion aid package from the IMF, the EC and other international lenders to cushion the effects of the recession.

The parent banks of Romania’s largest nine lenders agreed at the time to maintain overall exposure to the country by April 2011 and ensure capital adequacy levels over 10% for their subsidiaries.

Nonetheless, the parent bank’s exposure dropped by up to 4.4% in some cases after the IMF concluded a first review mission in Bucharest in the summer, the participants to the meeting in Brussels said.

In a joint statement with the European Commission, the IMF said November 18 that the parent banks reaffirmed their commitments to keep overall exposure to Romania to the end-March level and to maintain their subsidiaries’ solvency ratio above 10%.

The nine parent banks are Erste Group Bank, Raiffeisen International, EFG Eurobank, National Bank of Greece, UniCredit Group, Societe Generale, Alpha Bank, Volksbank, and Piraeus Bank. Their market share amounts to around 70% of Romanian banking system.

Greece’s EFG Eurobank, majority holder in Romanian BancPost, has increased its exposure to Romania by some EUR200 million compared with the end-March level, BancPost president Mihai Bogza said recently.

On the other hand, Greece’s largest lender National Bank of Greece (NBG) has announced its exposure to Romania dropped to EUR925 million in September from EUR1.078 billion end-March.