More than 50% of the corporate loans granted in foreign currencies by UniCredit Tiriac since the beginning of the year (accounting for both the former HVB Tiriac and UniCredit Romania) were registered directly abroad, because of the cost of the minimum mandatory reserves, says Rasvan Radu, executive chairman of UniCredit Tiriac.

"All the large volumes are (i.e. registered) abroad and this is especially true for investment loans. This is an apparent effect of NBR's policy to maintain a high cost for foreign currency lending granted by domestic banks, whilst, for the most part, major corporate and multinational clients' exposure is already based abroad," Rasvan Radu told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.

He estimates that, should the NBR maintain the current level of minimum mandatory reserves in foreign currency, almost the entire corporate sector would end up receiving loans in foreign currency from abroad. The local banks arrange and monitor the finance contracts, while the money comes from the parent bank. "We are practically forced to provide our funding from Vienna, to be able to compete with the foreign banks," says Marinel Burduja, first vice-president of Raiffeisen Bank, one of the banks that have largely resorted to outsourcing loans, even some of the loans granted to individual clients.

"We are also considering registering abroad the high-value loans granted to individual customers," says Rasvan Radu. He explains that the NBR does not have any records of funding coming from parent banks, as there are no reporting obligations, so that the statistical data concerning the total share of foreign currency loans present a distorted picture, which is hardly relevant.

"The decline of loans in foreign currencies was artificial," says Rasvan Radu.

A clearer picture of the foreign exposure of the companies in foreign currency can be found in statistics re