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Cristian Popa, BNR: The commercial banks from Romania are not affected by the crisis

According to BNR vice governor, S&P approach is not entirely correct.

The commercial banks from Romania are not affected by the crisis, and the situation from the parent-banks cannot extend to them, has recently assured the BNR vice governor, Cristian Popa, quoted by Agerpres.

"The financial system from Romania is chiefly a system of banking mediation in which the presence of the foreign capital is overwhelming, but this capital is mainly in the parent banks from the EU states. Even if they may go through difficult moments, after October 13, there is an engagement of the heads of states and governments from the EU to assure the integrity of the financial systems. This means a much reduced possibility that the shocks in the situation of significant deteriorations in the situation of the parent banks that would affect the operations of the foreign banks active in Romania," Popa declared.

Speaking about the decision of Standard & Poor's to reduce the country rating, Popa pointed out that the idea to disregard the importance of the quality of EU member state of Romania is unfortunately a flaw of S&P analysis, which tended to emphasize negative aspects without seeing several things.

"We have not only stressed these things, but we began to correct them. Look at the fact that the monetary policy interest rate of BNR was raised successively seven times, becoming 325 basic points bigger. Look at the fact that we have not reduced the minimum compulsory reserves, but we have also maintained them, although we were criticized for this measure. They rescue us in this moment and are, besides a monetary policy instrument, a buffer stock, a protection of liquidity that we can adjust in a controlled way, in order to assure the liquidity of the banks, if it decreases," the BNR official explained.

Cristian Popa does not deny the more complicate situation of the funding costs, "therefore the banks are concerned and have given a judicious answer to the measures set by BNR, in order to stimulate the credit in RON and take the foot away from the pedal in terms of credit in foreign currency. We have seen a steady interest, starting with the end of the past year, for the granting of more stimulating interest rates for the saving in RON and the creation of an autonomous base independent from the entries of capital from abroad.

Cristian Popa considers that the approach of S&P is not entirely correct, estimating that the tendency is to classify the countries by groups, to regard the regions as homogeneous groups which suffer from the same problems. "I believe that the proximity of the economies which were confronted with acute pressure upon their financial systems prompted the attention to move in an unjustified way to Romania. We are pleading for a mix of consistent macroeconomic policies, in which the macroeconomic management would take into account an income policy and a prudent fiscal policy, in line with the need to manage the stages in the economic cycle from Romania," concluded the BNR official.

Also, Cristian Popa, declared on Tuesday that the central bank predicts for 2009 a decrease of the economic growth of Romania to 4.6 per cent, from an advance of 8-9 per cent this year.

 

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Tags: which romania banks bnr cristian

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