BNR's Vasilescu: Public, entire Romanian society should understand first urgency is banks not to fall

The public and the entire Romanian society should understand that the first urgency is that banks don't fall, and after this urgency comes solidarity, National Bank of Romania (BNR) Strategy Consultant Adrian Vasilescu said on Tuesday. "The action has to take into account urgencies. The public and the entire Romanian society should understand that the first urgency is that banks don't fall, that no bank should fall, no great number of banks should fall, because in crisis such catastrophes happen. Because, if banks fall, something much worse cannot be imagined, because after the banks fall all the economy goes down. So, after this urgency, comes solidarity. Solidarity, a moral essence word, in this case it wears the coat of pragmatism. Because it cannot be otherwise. In the bank - clients relation, pragmatism should come first, starting from the experience we have, the experience of the crisis in 2008 -2011," Vasilescu told Digi 24 private broadcaster. According to him, in that period no bank "fell" in Romania, but 30 percent of those who had loans could not reimburse them. Vasilescu draws attention that this solidarity should intervene, and the "risk should be shared between banks and clients." "If not, it would be worse," he argued. Moreover, the BNR representative mentioned that, so far, the departments dealing with the monetary policy at the National Bank, including the strategy ones, are involved in a very serious analysis, in order to see what would the consequences be. For instance, how much a bank could postpone the payment of installments - one month, two - and then, what effects might occur if such postponements come from a bank of strategic importance or from a smaller bank and "doesn't produce ripple effects throughout the economy." "All this should be known step by step. Such a measure cannot be taken without assessment, because it would be serious," Adrian Vasilescu underscored. He explained that the decisions are made on short-term, depending on how the events unfold. When asked about the exchange rate, Adrian Vasilescu mentioned that the depreciation takes place in the regional context and in the crisis context. "Beyond the 11 economic indicators which are pressing the exchange rate, there is one above all: demand and offer. Currently, that exchange rate we see depends on how high the demand is and how high can the offer be to cover this demand," he underscored. AGERPRES (RO - author: George Banciulea, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Adina Panaitescu)