September 14, 2009

Romanian bankers were shocked by the chaos and the massive turmoil the United States was facing. Wall-Street’s severe bear market sent shock waves across the European markets including the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Romanians started to feel the pinch of the recession, although economists had assured the economic crisis will bypass the country.

In the local banking system, credit institutions are yet too small compared to United States’, and their luck was that the National Bank of Romania has restricted access to the toxic asset territory, which was considered to be the “playground” of the foreign bankers. However, Romanians’ confidence in banks has faded after the world’s banking giants, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went bankrupt. As a result, consumers started to take out their money from their savings accounts in Romanian credit institutions.