Sources on the financial market said recently that the nine banking groups that signed this commitment – Erste Bank, Raiffeisen International, Eurobank EFG, National Bank of Greece, UniCredit, Société Générale, Alpha Bank, Volksbank, and Piraeus Bank – were given permission by the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission, and the National Bank of Romania (BNR) to lower their exposure in Romania, if necessary.
“There were no talks at BNR about the exposures of banks. Whoever issued this information started with the premise that the agreement signed with the nine banking groups can be revised, but it does not mean that this has actually happened. Such information is harmful because it provoked a shock; it was replicated, and foreign investors began to ask questions,” Adrian Vasilescu, Advisor to the BNR Governor, told Business Standard.
According to the latest data published by the Bank for International Settlements, foreign banks raised their exposure in Romania by $4.2 billion in the second quarter, to $119 bln. Austrian lenders were the most active, with an increase of more than $2.2 bln.
