Ten banks to join SME loan amnesty project

Ten Romanian banks are interested in joining the loan amnesty programme for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which will enable companies to temporarily suspend paying their instalments or to extend the repayment period. The project has been presented at the end of the summer by Mircea Geoana, chairman of the Romanian Senate and leader of the Social Democratic Party, and is based on a model already adopted within the Italian banking system. The project was discussed this summer by Geoana and Radu Ghetea, chairman of the Romanian Banking Association, Florin Georgescu, first deputy governor of the NBR (National Bank of Romania), Florin Pogonaru, chairman of the Romanian Businesspeople Association and Nicolae Danila, currently member of the NBR's Board of Governors. "It appears ten banks will join this protocol, at least in a first stage. All banks with Italian capital have welcomed the proposal to join this protocol, because they have already accepted it at group level, and there have been positive responses from other banks, as well. The protocol will be signed by the end of October," says Tudor Totu, former Secretary of State in the cabinet of health minister Ion Bazac, and the person in charge of this project within the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He says the protocol, which will be concluded under the patronage of the National Bank and will also be signed by the Budget-Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies remains open, with other banks able to join the list later.