Romanians stand chances of not having to worry about taking their RON to Greece or Austria, that is those countries with many banks operating on the market in Bucharest, once the RON has become fully convertible.

"Slowly, banks will agree to exchange RON, as a result of bilateral conventions with Romanian banks and with travel agencies. The first to do it will probably be the banks in Greece and Austria, as well as in the countries in the region, such as Czech Republic and Hungary," Radu Ghetea, chairman of the Romanian Banking Association commented for ZF.

The fully convertible RON does not have any significant practical meaning to the public as long as banks and exchange offices abroad are in no rush to display quotes for the Romanian currency.

The areas in Europe where many Romanians live, such as Vienna, had exchange offices taking RON even before September 1, albeit the exchange rate was discouraging, some 5.1 RON/EUR, over 45% higher than the exchange rates in Bucharest. Possibilities to buy euros with RON are even more numerous in Budapest, because of the geographic proximity.

Last, but not least, cards issued in RON and useable abroad have been part of the banks' portfolios for quite a while.

Truth is that neither the Polish zloty, fully convertible since 1995, nor the Hungarian forint, fully convertible since 2001, are accepted by every bank, not even in the European Union.

September 14 will be the first day when foreign investors will be able to invest in Romanian short-term monetary instruments directly, after the complete deregulation of the market and the shift to the full convertibility of the RON, once the three-month deposit certificate issue planned by the NBR has been released.

The central bank will remain the only issuer of short-term instruments, seeing as the Finance Ministry cancelled the treasury ce