Nine foreign banks present on the Romanian market meet with the IMF and BNR in Brussels to discuss past agreements

Miercuri, 18 noiembrie 2009, 11:49 English | Top News

Representatives of the biggest nine foreign banks active on the Romanian market are meeting today in Brussels with officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Romanian Central Bank (BNR) and the European Commission to discuss about their following the engagements they took in March in Wien, namely to support their Romanian branches by keeping the financial investments in the country.

During the meeting it will be discussed if there is the need to revise the banks' exposure in Romania.

The meeting comes after several banks planned to reduce the funds they allocate to their Romanian branches due to the lack of opportunities, according to Romanian news agency NewsIn. The financial results presented by the main banks after the first nine months of the year underlined the lack of investment opportunities on the Romanian banking market.

According to statistics, foreign banks increased their exposure in Romania by 4.2 billion dollars during the second quarter, amounting to 119 billion dollars. In euros, the value of exposure reduced by 2 billions due to the depreciation of the dollar in the second quarter.

Romanian Central Bank (BNR) vice-president Florin Georgescu hopes that engagements pledged by the banks in spring will be restated and they will increase the liquidity on the banking market.