NBR flunks 44 bank managers

No less than 44 heads of major departments of the banks of the market - from lending to risk management, have failed NBR's exam that was supposed to confirm them on their positions, required by the new legislation on lenders, banking sources say.

Over the last few months, about 201 execs have been interviewed by technical committees of the NBR based on their job description to assess their professional skills and their familiarity with the regulations related to their activity.

As of this year, the banking legislation stipulates that every person appointed to run risk management and control, internal audit, conformity, treasury and lending departments "shall be endorsed by the NBR before they start in their position", after the endorsement had been previously necessary only for the members of a bank's Board.

The evaluation process is practically over, but the situation of those that did not 'pass' is unclear: theoretically they have to be replaced but banks are requesting new exams considering they are bankers who were already working on their specific positions.

"Quite a number of people failed. We informed each bank about it. The regulation in force says they have to be replaced. However, there have been some talks between us and the Romanian Banking Association about the possibility of a new assessment, similar to retaking a failed exam," said Nicolae Cinteza, head of NBR's Supervision Department.

He says that for the new legislation to be enforced, committees were put together at the National Bank, comprising representatives of the managers who have specific competencies precisely in the field subjected to assessment, besides those of the supervision department. The examination took three to four hours on the average.

"It was a conversation with the executive in question in order to assess if they knew how to manage risks well, based on the strategy of the bank and regulations. We are generally pleased, with some exceptions. There are situations where we asked them to study harder," NBR's head of the supervision department said.