Romania banking official Radu Negrea: when banks are urged to cut interests, they invoke risky financial environment in Romania

Former member of the Bucharest Stock Exchange board Cristian Sima declares in the weekly Hotnews.ro-BBC interview, that the number of non-performing mortgage credits contracted in Swiss currency might increase. At his turn, Secretary of Romania’s Banks Association Radu Negrea declared that banks in Romania refuse to cut interests in line with Western ones, invoking the great financial risks in the country.

Sima declared that the real estate market will settle itself, otherwise Romanians will find it more cheaply to purchase an apartment in Paris, on the famous Champs Elysee boulevard than afford one in a less decent area in Bucharest.

Moreover, Sima is confident that the international financial crisis might actually benefit Romania more than affect it. He further sustains that last week’s crisis of the Romanian Stock Exchange was not a consequence of the international crisis.

Sima added that the Romanian market will become very appealing for foreigners, since our country has every change to have more gains than losses, and these effects can be seen starting with 2009. At his turn, Radu Negrea declared that bank representatives fail to take the lead in the action arguing that the market is too risky.