Banca Transilvania takes 150m euros from EBRD

Banca Transilvania (TLV), the leading credit institution with Romanian private majority capital, will receive 150 million euros from its main shareholder, the EBRD, 50 million euros of which are a share capital contribution, according to market sources. The rest of the EBRD funding consists of a 100 million-euro credit. Horia Ciorcila, the bank's chairman, says the policy of distributing stock dividends will be abandoned, after shares have fallen sharply on the Stock Exchange in the past year. The capital increases performed via the capital market, by incorporating profits and distributing bonus shares, as well as by cash contributions from the shareholders, have played an important part in the bank's funding. In the absence of capital increases, foreign funding becomes all the more important, in the context where banks are struggling to secure liquidity by raising interest rates both for RON deposits and for those in foreign currency.