AFTER THREATENING TO SUE THE GOVERNMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT SENT THE LAW ON THE CONVERSION OF CHF DENOMINATED LOANS TO THE ROMANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT Raiffeisen Bank was the sponsor of the event attended by Wolfgang Schäuble

UPDATE 17:22 Raiffeisen Bank has not sponsored the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance, nor yesterday's event that Wolfgang Schäuble, German Finance Minister attended, the bank stated in a response sent to the "BURSA" editorial office.

The Cioloş seems to be in a serious conflict of interest, as Raiffeisen International is threatening to sue it in Washington, but accepts having Raiffeisen Bank România sponsoring its press conference in which the most important attendee was German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, together with the Romanian prime-minister and with Anca Dragu, the Romanian finance minister.

It would be interesting to know what the sponsorship consisted of, because we can't imagine the Romanian state receiving money from a bank to pay for the coffee of the German finance minister.

In light of this sponsorship, the statements of the members of the government, including those of Cioloş, against the law of giving in payment and the sending of the law to the Constitutional Court may have other meanings than the stated ones. Furthermore, banking sources have told us that the current finance minister Anca Dragu said that she doesn't intend to hire lawyers for a potential international lawsuit against Raiffeisen Bank, expressing the opinion that the Romanian state would lose against it, anyway.

Raiffeisen Bank is one of the banks that are extremely vocal against the law of giving in payment, and the Council of Banking Professional Associations in Romania, which was extremely harsh in its statements against borrowers and the courts, and which was even accused of interfering in the judicial process, is actually helmed by Steven van Gronigen, the president of Raiffeisen Bank.

It is noteworthy that NBR governor Mugur Isărescu did not attend the event, only members of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank.

Still, Dan Suciu, the communications director of the NBR, told us that Mugur Isărescu was going to have a meeting last night with the German official, a meeting included by the Ministry of Finance on the schedule of Wolfgang Schäuble visit in Romania.