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Banking in Romania is much like any other European
country. With a solid central bank
and the last publicly held bank sold off in late 2006, Romania has completely
privatised it's banking sector since the 1989 revolution.
Australia has roughly the same population (about 21 million)
as Romania , yet the retail banking sector is dominated by only four major players
(CommBank, NAB, ANZ and WestPac).
Romanian however has yet to see such consolidation of the industry,
largely due to the heavy and disparate foreign ownership of banks, along with
regional divisions (the Bank of Transilvania is not as popular outside Transilvania).
Established in 1880, the NBR is the country's central bank, and
an independent public institution with its headquarters in Bucharest. It is
the sole institution vested with the power to issue notes and
coins to be used as legal tender on the territory of Romania.
In addition to issuing currency, the bank ensures and maintains
price stability in the economy. The central bank formulates monetary
policy and the exchange rate policy (until the Euro is adopted in Romania) in
line with the general economic policy of the Government of the day.
With a great view of
Lipscani Street , one of the most imposing and
massive bank edifices in Romania. The construction of the building
in the eclectic style of the late 19th century, with some neo-classical
elements, proceeded between 12th July 1884 (when the foundation stone
was laid) and June 1890
Photo: Government of Romania
Overseeing credit-issuing institutions, the NBR also oversees the
payment systems, and manages the official cash reserves of the nation.
By law, the National Bank of Romania is solely accountable to Parliament
and is on no account subordinated to Government, although cooperation
where possible exists.
The National Bank of Romania is managed by a Board of Directors appointed
by the Parliament of Romania on the recommendation of the standing committees
of the two Chambers of the Parliament. Board members are appointed for
a five-year tenure that can be subject to renewal.
The main tasks of the Board of Directors are to decide on the monetary
and exchange rate policies, as well as on the measures for authorisation,
regulation and prudential supervision of the credit institutions and oversight
of the authorised payment systems.
Even after EU Accession, Romania remains on the radar in
boardrooms across Europe and the USA for it's abundant skilled labour force
and low taxes.
Romania still comes up trumps with the availability
of an educated labour force, low labour costs, and since January 2007, the
existence of an approved European Union legal system. With medium-term
incentives offered to potential investors and, of course, stability of the
political system, improving infrastructure and favourable geography
makes Romania a flexible and rich with complimentary functional nodalities.
Road infrastructure is probably one of the biggest
challenges in the near to medium term, and the tax system cannot be said to
be fully stable as yet, although certainly more favourable than most European
country tax law for most corporations.
Top 10 Foreign Controlled
Companies
Rank
Field of activity
Country origin
Foreign Investor
Romanian Company
1
Automotive
France
Renault
Automobile Dacia S.A
2
Steel production
India-UK
LMN Holding
Ispat-Sidex S.A.
3
Oil processing
Netherlands
Rompetrol Group
Rompetrol Rafinare S.A.
4
Telecommunication
Canada-UK
Telesystem Int'l Wireless and Vodafone
Mobifon S.A.
5
Retail trade
France
Bearbull SAS
Hiproma S.A.
6
Banking services
Austria
Raiffeisen International Bank Holding AG
Raiffeisen Bank S.A.
7
Automotive
Korea
Daewoo Motor Company Ltd.
Daewoo Automobile Romania S.A.
8
Personal care
USA
Colgate-Palmolive Inc. Products
Colgate-Palmolive
9
Gasoline distribution
Hungary
Mol Hungarian Oil & Gas Company RT
Mol Romania Petroleum Products SRL
10
Telecommunication
Greece
OTE Int'l Investment Ltd.
Romtelecom
Tables Source: The Embassy of Romania
in Canada, Ottawa
On Stamp Duty
Romania has a rather Eastern European tradition
of bureaucratic stamping of documents, any document, including
receipts. A tradition not known in most English speaking
countries, this stamp store in downtown Constanţa
is actually registered with the government to be authorised to
produce company stamps.
Taxes in Romania are enjoyably low for any company wishing to invest.
The simpler 16 per cent flat tax is not bad, although higher
than in neighbouring Serbia for example.
Salaries are also taxed at a competitive 16 per cent, yet the
social contributions made by the employer are so high that every Romanian socially
insured should have access to state-of-the-art facilities. This
had led to rampant under-reporting of wages in a bid for small businesses
to save on their burden to the state for each employee.
The employer also has to provide for a private insurance (which,
by the way, is not tax deductible) for its employees to make sure they are treated
in the same way as in an EU-member state.
Labouring Away
The labour market in Romania is very competitive with other economies and
one can find skilled labour force in abundance, making Romania shine amongst
it's Eastern European neighbours.
Employees are well-protected in law against being fired, something foreign
investors find slightly daunting sometimes. Unlike in American, the employer
does not have quite as much flexibility in ending an employment relationship,
and employers in Romania must seriously consider candidates for positions prior
to hiring.
The accession of Romania in 2007 has seen a drastic increase in domestic
demand caused by the inflow of funds (both, from the EU budget and private investments)
and an increase in the spending power of all Romanians.
This increase, coupled
with the size of the market, has made the guarantee that investment in Romania
continues to yield a return, that can easily indemnify for the downsides mentioned
under points one to three above.
The national statistics service, the INS reports that in 2006, job in the
agrarian sector fell by 2% to 31% of the total labour force, with
construction and service sector jobs up 8.3% each. The trends
are expected to continue through 2007, with a slow decline in farm jobs as
multinationals snap up land and the influx to the cities continues.
Disposable income has been on the rise (up 6.8% in 2006, corresponding to a
drop in the underlying inflation from 8% to 4.3% at the end of 2006), thus
further feeding the service industry cycle.
The overall labour force participation rate in Romania constitutes 65.8%
of the population aged 15 to 64, with unemployment in Q3 2006 at 7.8%,
fairly steady for the Romanian economy.
The Stock Market
Already three times the size of the market in European Union neighbour Bulgaria
to the south, the Bucharest exchange is pushing to grow to over a quarter million
active investors and a market cap of 50E billion by 2010.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE)’s newly elected board is aiming for
a capital boost and to increase the market capitalisation to 40 billion Euro
from the current 15.3 billion Euro.
However this 40 billion Euro figure would only be half of the current
market capitalisation of the Polish stock market.
The BSE’s market capitalisation is half that in Hungary and the Czech
Republic, but three times the size of Bulgaria (4.3 million Euro). The
bourse also aims to reach a daily trade volume of 50 million Euro by 2010,
up from the 8.7 million Euro last year.
“We want to organise a new market segment, dedicated entirely to companies
active in the high-tech field,” said Septimiu Stoica, new president of the
board of BSE. “We have already started consultancy talks with the main associations
in the field, as we wanted to get the validation of our ideas in this respect
and to go public with it.”
The new management of the BSE wants to get more people playing the markets.
It wants to increase the number of active investors by 2010 to 300,000 from
the current 12,000.
“We are also thinking about launching the idea of having a regional stock
exchange up and running, mainly in the countries from the Balkans,” Stoica
told The Diplomat. “We’re talking about countries such as Bulgaria and
Serbia-Montenegro, and if we can have the Athens Stock Exchange involved in
the system it would be great.”
The BSE wants to improve its IT infrastructure to support new active accounts,
although no details have been released as to when this will happen. This could
give grounds for the BSE to complement the systems operated by other European
stock exchanges.
Rest Romania does not give investment advice
and recommends that you contact your broker or other market professional prior
to making any investment. Rest Romania is in not in any way responsible
for the accuracy or suitability to any figures given in regard to economy, markets,
pricing or other economic type activity.
Other terms and conditions apply
Downtown on Str. Doamnei, the new wing of the NBR Palace was built
during World War II, after having laid the foundation stone back in 1937.
The construction works carried on between 1942-44
under the direction of architect Ion Davidescu assisted by two other architects,
Radu Dudescu and N. Cretoiu.
The building is emblematic of the neo-classical style
with rationalist influences that prevailed in the inter-bellum period.
It impresses by the monumental granite stairs, the huge Corinthian columns
forming the façade, and the large, white marble-coated halls inside the
building.
The Romanian currency is the Leu (plural is Lei), and the fractional coin
is called the Ban (pl. Bani).
In July of 2005, Romania's legal tender, previously coded as ROL, was redenominated
so that ROL 10,000 were exchanged for 1 new leu (RON). By the end of 2006,
all of the old money had been removed from the market, making the RON, with
banknotes sized to European standards, the only money in circulation.
Please note that any color 1:1 reproduction
must be done with the previous written permission of the National Bank of Romania
(NBR). Forgery or attempted forgery will be punished, according to the Romanian
Criminal Code - Art. 282, with 3 to 12 years jail.
REVIEW OF MONEY AND CIRCULATION OF MONEY ON
THE TERRITORY OF ROMANIA
Late Bronze Age Money
The first forms of money exchange on the territory
of nowadays Romania emerged in late Bronze Age (daggers, arrowheads).
The Drachma of Istros (around 480 BC) is the earliest money
issue on the territory of Romania.
The Histrian drachma
Roman Drachmas
Also in circulation within the regions inhabited by Geto-Dacian tribes
were gold staters and silver tetra-drachmas issued by Philip II, Alexander
the Great, Lysimachus, as well as drachmas from Apollonia and Dyrachium
and silver tetra-drachmas minted by the Roman province of Macedonia Prima
and the city of Thasos.
Staters from Thrace
Dacian Greek Coins
The Geto-Dacian monetary system was a combination
of a variety of widely circulated Greek coins.
The first Geto-Dacian coins date back around 300 BC, while the first
century BC brought along the end of the Geto-Dacian minting.
Kosons
The Roman Denarius
The Roman republican denarius made its way
to Dacia in the second century BC as shown by the great number of money
hoards.
In the aftermath of the conquest of Dacia, the Roman imperial denarius
became the official coin in the new province.
Denariuses - The Roman Empire
Trajan and Hadrian
Continuing Roman Coins
Even after the withdrawal of the Roman administration and army from
north of the Danube (271 AD), the Roman currency continued to penetrate
the territory of the former Dacia province and the adjacent extra-Carpathians
areas.
Solidus Anastasius (491 - 518)
Middle Ages Byzantine Currency
The Byzantine currency took over the
Roman one to become the means of payment on the Romanian territories in
the early Middle Ages until the 14th century.
From the year 1000 onwards, the currencies issued
by the neighbouring sovereign countries started to circulate on these
territories as well.
The Romanian rulers took on the right
of coin mintage, following the trends of those times. The first coins
ever to be issued in Walachia were minted by Vladislav Vlaicu I
(1364 - 1377) and were made of silver. They were called ducats - the big
ones, the dinars - the medium-sized ones, and the ban - the odd money.
In Moldavia, the first coins - the silver groschen - bore the arms
of Petru Musat (1378 - 1394). The Transylvanian mint had started
to operate ever since the early 14th century, but the first currencies
were issued in the autonomous province of Transylvania under Ottoman suzerainty
between 1551 - 1690, and subsequently under Austrian suzerainty between
1690 - 1780.
In time, for economic and chiefly political
reasons, the Romanian rulers lost the right to mint their own coins. Under
the circumstances, the Romanian provinces saw a spate of various foreign
currencies, of which the extremely weak ones coming from Austria and Turkey
were nothing but a deterrent to the development of a free trade and circulation
of money.
The Dutch Lion
In the 17th century, the Netherlands-minted taler-leu took control
of the circulation of money in the Romanian Provinces.
The new coinage swiftly spread deep into the economy and into the
minds of people living in this area. In the late 18th century, after being
withdrawn from circulation, the taler-leu became unit of account. The
name ‘leu’ was gaining ground and in 1867, it became the currency unit
of the Romanian principalities (Walachia and Moldavia).
Taler-leu
The Currency Laws
The "Law on establishment of a currency system and the issuance of
the national currency" was passed on 22nd April 1867.
The leu developed into the national currency and comprised 100 bani.
Only copper coins were minted in the beginning, with face value of one,
two, five, and ten bani.
Once the State Mint came into being on 3rd March 1870,
the anniversary gold coin of lei 20 and the silver coin of leu 1 were
displayed publicly. Those were the first coins to bear the name ‘leu’.
The outbreak of the War of Independence triggered a cash crisis that
was overcome by the issuance of mortgage bonds that are viewed as the
first Romanian banknotes.
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Photo:
Top 10 Foreign Controlled
Companies
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