Andreas Treichl (in picture), the head of Erste Bank – owner of Romanian lender BCR – says his bank will continue to give loans in Romania and finance the Romanian economy. “Erste is the biggest lender in the country, through BCR. We are on our way to increasing the investment in Romania. And it is 100 percent certain that BCR wants and will continue to finance the Romanian economy,” said Treichl in an interview for newswire Mediafax.

Romanian President Traian Basescu has recently asked foreign banks to maintain capital flow to Romania, adding that it would be inappropriate to cut these funds after obtaining huge profits in the country.

“I would like to express my concern about the possible behavior of some banks. I want to believe that the announcement made by the Austrian National Bank of reducing the Austrian banks’ capital flow to non-eurozone countries was either an error or a misunderstanding of the effects,” said Basescu during the Analyzing Romania’s future economic potential conference organized by The Economist.

Austrian banks’ subsidiaries in Romania will not receive support from their main shareholders unless they become sustainable: locally financed through local deposits, with local issuance activity and supranational funding, the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) and the Austrian National Bank have decided. Read about it here.

editor@romania-insider.com 

(photo source: Erste Bank)