Romanian banks’ shares in roller-coaster amid assets tax

The shares of Romania’s largest bank, Banca Transilvania (TLV), plunged by nearly 10% in the first part of the January 15 trading session to recover almost the entire loss and end the day with a marginal 1% decline. TLV’s shares traded RON 2.35 on December 18, before the Government announced the emergency ordinance that set a special tax on bank assets, to drop at RON 1.7 at the end of January 15, meaning it lost more than one quarter of its market capitalisation. The other major bank traded in Bucharest, BRD-Socgen lost “only” one fifth of its market capitalisation over the same period of time. The recovery during the second half of the day was not driven by good news, but rather technical trading. On the contrary, Ziarul Financiar daily reported about foreign banks in Romania attending Euromoney meeting in Vienna and their managers expressing perplexity with the Romanian Government’s total lack of transparency. In the absence of any official clarifications, banks expect the worst in terms of the financial assets tax. More than the tax, the Government’s refusal to discuss the issue with banks is the most annoying, anonymous sources within the banks told ZF. Romania’s Govt. expects EUR 850 mln from bank assets tax in 2019 Media: European Central Bank reviewing Romania’s tax on financial assets editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Pixabay.com)