Non-residents’ deposits were flat compared with August 2016 but were about EUR820 million lower than at the end of 2015. They were at a nine-year low. The level was even lower in 2008, at the onset of the crisis. The decline could continue over the coming period.
A total of EUR4.6 billion has `evaporated’ from non-residents’ deposits since the peak in the summer of 2011.
Non-residents’ deposits fell below EUR5 billion in January 2016 for the time since May 2008. The decline in such deposits, which are actually a form of support for local subsidiaries from parent banks, mostly used during the crisis, has worsened in the last few years.
The decline in funding from parent banks to subsidiaries in Romania may be because of the volatility on some European markets that made some banking groups withdraw support and repatriate the funds to their countries of origin. Another influence in the decline in non-resident deposits may have been the decline in deposit interest rates.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)