Only three foreign banks have maintained exposure to Romania

EFG Eurobank, majority shareholder of Bancpost, Alpha Bank and Volksbank are the only banks that have maintained their positions in Romania, at a level equal or above the one agreed at the end of March.

Greek-based EFG Eurobank has increased exposure to Romania to 110.5% in September, from the end of first quarter this year, as the parent bank took repeated capital hike actions at Bancpost. Alpha Bank has also increased its exposure marginally above the agreed level, to 101.4%, while Volksbank kept its position at 100%.

The exposure of the remaining 7 banks fluctuated in a 0.6-18% range, namely 99.4% - 82% from the benchmark date (March 31, 2009).

In certain cases, banks’ failure to meet their commitments was due to the depletion of banks’ funds for sovereign exposure to Romanian state. On the other hand, the difficult economic circumstances and the sluggish credit demand have forced banks to temporarily lower exposure below the agreed level.

Erste’s exposure has been corrected slightly after the first nine months this year to 99.1%. As for the National Bank of Greece, the exposure dropped to 99.4% in the same interval. Raiffeisen stood at 96.3%. Unicredit's exposure declined to 82%, Societe Generale to 88% while Piraeus to 92%.

Compared to the benchmark date, the global exposure of the nine banks to Romania decreased by around 4% in September, but increased in October by 3.8% (€1.2 billion).

“In EU the global exposure is calculated using two sources, data from the Bank for International Settlements and financial reports of the nine banks, and hence the differences between data collected from each country”, sources closed to the issue said.

According to a press release ater the the follow-up meeting held at the end of October 2009, the exposure of parent banks to Romania was broadly maintained compared to the benchmark date (March 2009).