With a modest profit and a doubling weight of bad loans in theoverall portfolio, the Romanian banking system has been among thehardest hit by the financial crisis that has engulfed the CEEregion since the autumn of 2008, reads a survey by Italy'sUniCredit group. Yet, Italian analysts are upbeat and believe thatbanks, most of them controlled by international groups, are keepingtheir lending capacity and will not hinder an economic rebound inthe region. "The vulnerabilities of the banking sectors in CEE haveplayed an important role during the crisis. A year after the shock,all of them survived, not untouched, but functional," says MarcoAnnunziata, chief-economist with UniCredit group. Though banks inthe region, including those of Romania, did not have toxic assetson their balance sheets, the crisis caught them with a series ofvulnerabilities. The main problems were generated by the highdependence on external funding. Another problem was the high weightof foreign currency loans.
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