Bucharest, October 21, 2014 – The biggest challenge for the decision makers in the SEE countries is cleaning up the balance sheets of the banks and the quality improvement of the assets in order to be able to re-start engines for credit activities and economic growth\u201d said today Traian Halalai, President of EximBank during the \u201dThe EU-Southeast Europe Summit\u201d organized by the The Economist in Bucharest.<\/p>\n
\u201e Balance sheet cleaning is important, since it would improve the assets quality and lay ground for financing the economy. Together with a return of loan growth, they will set the stage for profitability recovery on medium and long term. However, SEE banking sector profitability will be much lower than pre-crisis levels, since it will face ongoing burdens from higher capital requirements, tightened regulation and implementation of various sets of structural reforms. Moreover, bank margins in SEE tend to be positively correlated with interest rates and the current low interest rate environment is not supportive of high profitability compared to the pre-crisis period\u201d Traian Halalai also said.<\/p>\n
He added that although the performance of individual markets on medium and long term will greatly vary, the SEE banking sectors will all depend crucially on economic growth, sector restructuring and implementation of economic reforms. There are also other economic risk factors to the sector performance, including geopolitical risk, currency and interest rate risk, competition, development of capital markets, etc.<\/p>\n
The EximBank representative expressed the conviction that decision makers in SEE countries will identify alternatives for stimulating economic growth that is critical for the future of the banking system. In his opinion, the experience of the EU states in approaching the economic crisis is a starting point and the specific measures implemented by some SEE states may bee extended to several countries in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cCroatia has offered a good practice sample in European funds attraction in the accessing phase; Bulgarian experience in operating a development bank may be useful in finding solutions for the financing of the economic development. Romania has managed to intensify and diversify the state role in economy by state owned banks as well as by the use of specific instruments such as, for instance, the programs for stimulating the acquisitions of houses and cars\u201d said Traian Halalai, President of EximBank.<\/p>\n
EximBank is a specialized institution whose threefold product portfolio focused on financing, guarantees and insurance enables it to grant assistance to current activities and development of exporters, SME-s and companies involved in projects pertaining to key economic sectors, particularly those contributing to the absorption of EU funds.<\/p>\n
The bank got up seven positions in Top 100 Banks in South Eastern Europe as per profits registered last year, being now on the 31st position, according to the annual rankings drafted by SeeNews. This year\u2019s edition
\nincludes 22 Romanian banks, EximBank maintaining its position in top 10 most profitable banks, by holding the 8th place.<\/p>\n
According to the assets registered at the end of 2013, EximBank holds the 73rd position in this year\u2019s edition of Top 100 Banks in South Eastern Europe, out of a 250 participant banking institutions in 10 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bucharest, October 21, 2014 – The biggest challenge for the decision makers in the SEE countries is cleaning up the balance sheets of the banks and the quality improvement of the assets in order to be able to re-start engines for credit activities and economic growth\u201d said today Traian Halalai, President of EximBank during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n