Lazea: Banks are against RON decline in principle, but traders are trained to gain

Banks are in principle against the depreciation of the domestic currency, but traders are trained to gain from forex market operations, stated Valentin Lazea (photo), the chief-economist of the National Bank of Romania. "Of course, if the RON continues to depreciate from the current level, then some banks, and I won't say which ones, will have to recapitalise. (...) In principle, banks are against RON depreciation, but other persons in the same institutions are trained to gain from games on the computer, and they simply cannot keep their hands off. (...) These persons have learnt a lesson and apply it irrespective of circumstances," Lazea said. He also said banks are now adjusting their portfolios. "Foreign currency-denominated loans have to go down, and foreign currency deposits need to rise sufficiently to match currencies and maturity terms," the NBR's chief-economist said. The weight of foreign currency loans in overall non-governmental lending stood at 54%, Lazea also mentioned. "This weight is the reason why we kept the rate of minimum compulsory reserves so high, at 40%, because otherwise the percentage would be even higher," explained the economist. For foreign currency, the loans/deposits ratio stands at 2, while for RON it is smaller, at 0.95. For the overall system, the ratio stands at 1.3.