COMPARED TO LAST YEAR, IN THE FIRST QUARTER The exposure of foreign banks to Romania has increased

The exposure of foreign banks to Romania has increased in the first quarter compared to the end of last year, according to a report by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). Thus, foreign banks have increased their exposure by almost 2.5 billion dollars in the first three months of the year, to 109.491 billion dollars, according to the report.

While Austrian banks have reached an exposure of 38.24 billion dollars, compared to 37.02 billion dollars, in December, Greek lenders have seen a slight drop, of 54 million dollars, all the way to 18.754 billion dollars. The same thing happened in the case of French banks, which have reduced their exposure by 184 billion dollars, to 17.257 billion dollars. The exposure of German banks has reached 3.517 billion dollars, down from 3.627 billion dollars.

On the other hand, the Italian and Dutch banks have increased their exposure between January and March, the BIS states. Italian lenders have reached an exposure of 13.5 billion dollars, up from 13.33 billion dollars, whereas Dutch banks have increased theirs by over 1.2 billion dollars, to 8.41 billion dollars.

British and American banks have also seen increases since the end of last year. In the case of British lenders exposure reached 2.308 billion dollars, up from 1.966 billion dollars, whereas for American banks the increase has been of almost 130 million dollars, to 2.09 billion dollars.

The exposure of Turkish banks has remained almost unchanged in Q1 2012 (829 billion dollars in March compared to 827 billion dollars in December).

Slight changes were seen in the case of Belgian, Danish and Swedish banks, where exposure to Romania have increased, as well as in the case of Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss and Japanese banks, where exposures decreased.

• Lending dropped by 1.1 billion dollars in the first quarter

The amount of the loans granted in Romania by the banks which report to the BIS was 140 million dollars, taking the total level to 45.362 billion dollars, the report states. Adjusted according to the exchange rate, lending has shrunk by 1.1 billion dollars. Lending in the non-banking sector has fallen by 313 million, which shows that the main drop took place on the interbank market, due to the low confidence in it.

The volume of deposits fell by 171 million dollars (234 million dollars adjusted to the exchange rate) over the same period of the year.