* Arin Stănescu: "Banks did not even want to hear about any restructurings over the last two years"
The role of banks in the restructuring of companies is significant, considering that their position among creditors is extremely significant, deputy governor of the NBR, Bogdan Olteanu, said yesterday, in the beginning of the Conference "The role of banks in the restructuring of companies", organized by the BURSA newspaper, with the help of the NBR.
"With a rate of non-performing loans of 17% and a drop in the rate of coverage of the loans with the collateral, due to the depreciation of the assets, the banks have a significant presence among the creditors of companies", he said.
Arin Octav Stănescu, Managing Partner at law firm "Stănescu, Miloş, Dumitru and Associates", has a different opinion, however. He claims that over the last two years, "banks did not even want to hear about any restructurings".
There is no successful restructuring without "fresh money" from the banks, he said: "If you pretend some bad thing doesn't exist, that doesn't mean that it disappears. The banks have done nothing else but roll over the non-performing loans until after the crisis".
Over 150 businesspeople and specialists in areas such as legal services, insolvency stock market, the banking sector, yesterday spoke about the role which the banks play in the process for the restructuring of companies, as well as about the alternative solutions which the companies which are on the brink of insolvency can use.
Some of the methods proposed in that regard, by the attendees include the sale of the business, the debt-to-equity conversion and the options offered by the stock market.
Bogdan Olteanu said that the NBR has asked the auditing of the collaterals which banks request, to see if they cover the loans. If necessary, the Central Bank would require some
