The unused money lying in bank accounts could pay for two or three highways at the same time, said NBR vice-governor Eugen Dijmarescu.
According to central bank data, deposits by commercial banks with the NBR at the end of February amounted to around 5.7bn euros. This money cannot be placed in credits and is invested in one-month deposits or NBR deposit certificates to generate yields, despite this being lower than what can be achieved through lending.
"Lending capacity can easily go up by 10-15% of GDP using existing resources if companies come up with major investment projects. Two or maybe even three highways could be built at the same time this way," said Dijmarescu on Tuesday at a seminar organised by FinMedia. He said the funding sources existed within the banking system but that there was a lack of convincing investment projects which would enable access to them. "The available capital from the banks and the so-called idle money are worth at least double that of the state guarantees scheduled for 2005," he added.
Apart from the old problem of the lack of well-devised projects, banks are still reluctant to back companies with no relevant financial history or that are insufficiently transparent and rigorous in terms of their financial statements. The vice-governor pointed out that a substantial gap had developed between the interest rates paid by the central bank and those of commercial banks in their dealings with clients over the last two months. In the circumstances, the vice-governor explained, it can be expected that banks will continue to cut rates.
"There''s a large gap between the NBR rate and the active rates of commercial banks. I believe the prospects of European Union accession, as well as the attraction of new funding sources, will lead to a fall in interest rates, yet it remains to be seen what the optimum level is," Dijmarescu added.
The banking market has launched an increasing amount of offers for ROL loans with fixed rates, both for personal funding and for real estate. These types of lending are already available in the portfolios of various banks like BCR, BRD, Banca Transilvania and ING Bank.
Another NBR official, first vice-governor Florin Georgescu, said that active and passive interest rates will continue to be influenced by the NBR intervention rate.
"At the same time as the reduction of inflationary pressures, inflation''s irreversible adoption of a downward trend and with it becoming very clear that the end-of-year inflation target will be achieved, active interest rates will continue to fall due to the money supply derived from domestic savings and from abroad and to the NBR monetary policy that will discourage commercial banks from making placements with us. This is why we will encourage lending, provided that the banking norms of prudence and soundness are observed," Georgescu said.
liviu.chiru@zf.ro ; razvan.voican@zf.ro
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