THE ROMANIAN BANKING SYSTEM DURING THE ECONOMIC-FINANCIAL CRISIS

Abstract

The Romanian banking system was hit by the financial crisis in 2008 and the banking credit activity almost stopped for a few years. National Bank of Romania tighted the credit conditions and imposed strong regulations for banks. After the peak of the crisis, the credit conditions become lax again, trying to re-launch the economic activity by credit, but the effects in the economy didn’t appear until the end of 2013. Our banking system exposure to the foreign capital banks (Greek or Austrian) and the political crisis in some European countries (Greece and Ukraine) didn’t help either and increased the banking risks. Although the fundamentals of the Romanian banking system were sound, it faced the crisis well but it couldn’t support the recovery of our economy.

Keywords

• financial crisis
• banking system
• Romania