Danescu (Romanian Association of Banks): Rising populism, main challenge of the hour

I think that if we could measure populism in Romania, we could take a big step forward. If we had a populism indicator. I think that it is growing at the moment and this is in fact the main challenge and the opportunity would be to realize what danger this indicator of populism means when it has a high value for Romania in the future and outside of any crisis, but especially within this crisis, Florin Danescu, the Executive President of the Romanian Association of Banks (ARB) told the conference "Banks, in a pandemic - challenges and opportunities".

"Today there are about 10 legislative initiatives in Parliament. We want one, we reject the other nine with all our might because they are so dangerous that even outside of a crisis, such as the one we are going through, it can call into question or even overlook or halt, to be more direct, lending in Romania. The other nine pass, the one we want, the one on the electronic signature does not. This is the conclusion about the way the industry, for whose support everybody is asking these days,is being backed," said Florin Danescu.

He mentioned three of the legislative initiatives: the Law on capping interests, the Law on the assignment of claims, the Law on the conversion of credits, specifying that they are based on populism.

"If the banks have reacted proactively and offered deferrals of installments, understanding that they were reducing their income, understanding that they were endangering, even for an indefinite period, the ability to cover their costs because the banks are still operating, still have savings, still have operating costs, the same or maybe even higher, the postponement of these installments meant to assume in solidarity with the economy and from professional duty to assume losses or even lack of cash flow, which can be a thing very important for any banking industry. We expect the political to do the same. By comparison, mirroring the banking industry, politics should have said that they lose their image as well through the decisions they make, because they make economic decisions this time and less political decisions," said Florin Danescu.

He mentioned that political decision still prevails in the economy, something that is not related to the economic act.