The exposures of Greek and Dutch banks to Romania fell by nearlythree billion euros last year compared with 2009, according to datapublished by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), alsoknown as the bank of central banks. In the case of Greek banks,exposure to Romania fell by 1.6 billion euros, to 15.8 billioneuros, while for banks in the Netherlands exposure was reduced by1.1 billion euros, to 5.2 billion euros. The Greek now hold 16-17%of the assets in the Romanian banking system, and problems in theirown country, which faces a crisis so tough it has shaken the entireeuro zone, are making it much more difficult for Romanianoperations to finance their activities through loans. Last year,Greek banks kept pressure up on deposit interests and implicitly onloan interests, paying interests above the market average in orderto finance their operations preponderantly from the localmarket.
"Bank's exposures have remained relatively stable in crisis.More money will continue to flow in if demand for foreign-currencyloans returns. Foreign banks' exposure rose very much when lendingrose significantly, before the crisis. Financing from parent bankswill grow if financing needs grow," commented Ionuţ Dumitru, chiefeconomist of Raiffeisen Bank.
During the crisis, after more than a year of looking closely atthe exposures of the nine main foreign banks in Romania, seeking topersuade them to keep their exposures, the International MonetaryFund, the European Commission and the National Bank agreed at theend of July 2010 to a 5% cut to the exposure recorded at the end ofMarch 2009. This spring they decided to allow banks to freelyincrease or reduce their exposures to Romania, based on their ownevaluations and interests.
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