Romanian President Traian Basescu has asked foreign banks to keep their capital flows to Romania, adding that it would be inappropriate to cut these flows after obtaining huge profits in this country.

“I would like to express my concern about the possible behavior of some banks. I want to belive that the announcement made by the Austrian National Bank of reducing the Austrian banks’ capital flow to non-euro area countries was either an error or a misunderstanding of the effects,’ said Traian Basescu during the “Analysing Romania’s future economic potential’ conference organized by The Economist. “My message is: Gentlemen, you’ve made huge profits in Romania from 2000 and even by 2009, and if somehow you prepare today to leave the Romanian economy unfunded in the times of crisis, we will take it as an act that is not fair-play in the relationship with Romania,” he added.

The Romanian President also reminded Romania’s objective to entry the euro zone in 2015.

The President’s statement comes after the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) and the Austrian National Bank recent decision that the Austrian banks’ subsidiaries in Romania will not receive support from their main shareholders unless they grow sustainable, local financing through local deposits, local issuance activity and supranational funding. This decision affects Erste Group, the main shareholder in local lender BCR, Raiffeisen Bank International, shareholder of Raiffeisen Bank Romania and UniCredit Bank Austria, which controls UniCredit Tiriac Bank in Romania. Read more about it here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Romanian Presidency)