Romania’s National Bank (BNR) will have a new deputy governor appointed only after the parliamentary elections on December 11, because the Parliament needs time to make the best choice, said Liviu Dragnea, president of the Social Democrat Party (PSD), according to Bloomberg.

The main political parties have agreed to postpone the decision on the new deputy governor.

“The decision should not be influenced by electoral debates,” Dragnea said.

The former BNR deputy governor Bogdan Olteanu is under house arrest and resigned from this position in August. He has been charged with influence peddling in a corruption case.

According to prosecutors, Olteanu asked and requested a bribe of EUR 1 million from Romanian investor Sorin Ovidiu Vintu, in exchange for getting former journalist Liviu Mihaiu appointed as governor of the Danube Delta, in 2008. Vintu had economic interests in the area, and wanted to have control over it.

Bogdan Olteanu was President of the Chamber of Deputies at that time. Meanwhile, the Parliament elected him as a member of the BNR board.

editor@romania-insider.com