“One compares the money market rates, which are at 0.3%-0.4% for euro and 4% for lei. But there are often forgotten the enormous disparities between the two markets–respective risks, economic structure and so on,” Petre Bunescu, vice-president of Romania’s second largest bank, told the Mediafax Talks about Banking conference.
“As the key rate of Romania’s central bank is 5.25%, compared with 0.25% at the European Central Bank, one could easily imagine what are the different approaches on the costs of resources and credit between an European country and Romania,” Bunescu said.
The BRD official also said the deposit rates need to be correlated with the lending ones. “A bank cannot have high costs and low lending interest rates.”
An economic recovery will be fueled by foreign resources, as the country cannot count only on domestic savings, Bunescu said. However, banks will have to attract longer term deposits from local clients, as currently most of deposits are on terms shorter than six months.