Officially or not, many Romanians have decided in the past few years that they should no longer work between Christmas and New Year's Eve and that they should even prolong their vacation for several days after New Year's, to recover from the holidays. However, a group of bankers decided to stand up against the vacation that this year would have frozen any profitable activities for two weeks.
Thus, December 30 and 31 could be working days for the banks, although the National Bank of Romania (NBR) had said the last banking day was December 24 and the first was January 6, 2003. In other words, banking offices would have been paralysed for almost two weeks: no open windows and no interbanking operations.
Some of the bankers were quick to react. The Romanian Banks Association (ARB) has already sent a letter to NBR officials, requesting them to review their decision and to allow the banks to operate on December 30 and 31, said Dan Pascariu, one of the ARB leaders. However, banking sources say that most bankers were initially very happy about the long vacation. However, after the bout of enthusiasm was over, they realised the business was more important. But, since not everybody feels the same, the banks have divided into two camps, until the NBR issues an official decision: those who want to and will work and those who will obey the central bank's orders to stay home. "In our opinion, it is unacceptable that the country's financial and banking system should be paralysed for almost two weeks. We have thus decided to work with the public between the holidays, namely on December 27, 30, 31 and January 3, as much as we are allowed to: no transactions on the interbank market, but, in exchange, we will be processing deposits, credits, cash withdrawal and payments, foreign exchange operations etc.," Rasvan Radu, vice-president of Raiffeisen Bank Romania told Ziarul Financiar.
Dan Pascariu, president of HVB Bank Romania, feels the same way and points that "banks are service providers and it would be unnatural for Romania to have no financial activity for almost two weeks." HVB Bank offices will be open between the holidays.
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