Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) received 132 applications for the four executive director vacancies that it wants to fill. The positions were opened for applications at the beginning of July. Of the 132 applications that were submitted by July 19, ASF accepted 49 candidates who will be called for preliminary interviews.

The four vacant positions are: director of the legal department, director of the authorization department for the insurance sector, director of the authorization and supervision department for the capital markets sector and head of the communication department. The selection of the candidates for these openings will be finalized by mid-August.

The ASF is still undergoing an extensive reorganization process. The authority was created in April 2013, by Parliament decision. It took over the activity of the three supervisory commission for the insurance sector (CSA), for the capital markets (CNVM) and for the private pensions (CSSPP), and some 800 employees. The goal was to make the financial markets supervision more efficient and to reduce costs.

In the first nine months, however, the activity of the ASF had been overshadowed by the numerous changes in its management structure and by media stories related to the high salaries that were being paid to ASF employees. Some of the directors of the new ASF were members of the old structures of the CSA, CNVM and CSSPP, people with political connections.

At the beginning of this year, the ASF was hit by another scandal, after Dan Radu Rusanu, the executive president of the authority, and a non-executive member of the board, Marian Mirzac, were arrested in a corruption case tied to insurance company Carpatica Invest. Romanian businessman Ilie Carabulea, the owner of the company, was also arrested in this case.

Rusanu was replaced by Misu Negritoiu, former president of ING Bank Romania, who was brought to finalize the reorganizing process and to improve the image of the institution. Negritoiu announced a new organization structure in which management positions were cut by 35 percent.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com