Bucharest, January 26th, 2010 - Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) has decided to decrease by 2 pp, starting February 1st, 2010, the level of the fixed reference interest rate for newly approved loans in Lei, and by 1 pp the level of the variable reference interest rate, both for ongoing loans and for newly approved loans in Lei.

"This decrease in the interest rate of loans is up to four-folds higher than the 0.5 pp reduction in the key interest rate, recently performed by NBR (National Bank of Romania). BCR thus diminishes the burden of financial debts of the companies, clearly showing that it is constantly acting to help its clients and the Romanian economy in general" stated Wolfgang SCHOISWOHL, BCR's Corporate Executive Vice-President.

The new levels of the reference interest rate start from 11.5% and vary according to the type of loan and maturity (on a short, medium and long term).

"We need to stimulate economic recovery as much as possible, both by reorganizing loans and lowering clients' interest rates, as well as by implementing solutions and programs able to generate economic growth. It will be a tough year and BCR is ready to keep financing good business projects developed by reliable clients", added Wolfgang SCHOISWOHL. BCR had good results on corporate lending in 2009, having obtained an almost 1.5% increase in its market share against the end of 2008.

BCR, a member of the Erste Group, is a universal bank dedicated to both retail and corporate customers. BCR is the leading banking organization in Romania, managing assets worth of more than EUR 17.2 billion (as of September 2009). BCR is the most valuable Romanian financial services brand. The bank is having 663 retail branches and agencies (for individuals and micro corporations) located in most of the Romanian cities with a population of more than 10,000 inhabitants. The corpora