NBR has 11bn-euro deposits with foreign banks

The Romanian National Bank holds around 11 billion euros in deposits with foreign banks, generally central banks of sound economies, namely around one third of its total foreign reserves. As part of foreign assets (namely NBR placements abroad from the foreign currency reserve) loans in late January amounted to 45.2bn RON (the equivalent of around 11bn euros). "The NBR does not grant loans, according to its regulations. These are placements made by the NBR from its foreign currency reserve in form of deposits with banks from abroad. These are mainly central banks in powerful countries, but details about these placements are confidential," Constantin Chirca, deputy manager with NBR's Statistics Department explained for ZF. The volume of placements classified as loans in foreign assets more than doubled during the January 2009-January 2010 period, from 18.5bn RON in early last year. In absolute volumes, the increase amounted to 26.7bn RON (around 6bn euros).