Romanian President: Banks should keep level of exposure on Romania for at least two years

Romanian President Traian Basescu has recently said that he agrees with banks’ capitalization, but that they should keep the level of exposure on Romania for at least two more years. “I didn’t question the approved amount of EUR 100 billion for capitalization”, he said, adding that what he questioned was if the amounts used for banks’ capitalization covers “our need for their subsidiaries in Romania to keep the level of exposure for this year and the next one”. Traian Basescu said that he asked the Romanian Minister of Finance to add a paragraph in the Council of Ministries' documents which would require banks with branches in Romania to maintain their exposure on this country. According to a report published by the Romanian Central Bank (BNR) Romanian banks’ capitalization was at a level of 14.2 percent in June this year, compared to 14.7 percent in December 2009 and 15 percent in December last year. There was only one bank which reported a solvability rate below 10 percent – 9.3 percent in June 2011, still above the minimum threshold of 8 percent, according to BNR, which did not mention the name of the bank. However, this bank only has 0.1 percent of the banking assets in Romania and BNR has asked it to increase its social capital by the end of the year. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)