Romania's central bank hikes interest rates for mandatory minimum reserves in lei and U.S. dollars

The Central Bank of Romania (BNR) increased the interest rate granted to commercial banks for the mandatory minimum reserves from 2.50 percent to 2.60 percent for reserves in lei and from 1.2 percent to 1.3 percent for reserves in U.S. dollars, according to the bank's web page.

Moreover, BNR lowered by 0.1 percentage points the annual interest rate for mandatory minimum reserves in euro.

BNR increased in January the interest rates granted to commercial banks for mandatory minimum reserves from 2.35 percent to 2.50 percent for lei and from 1.15 percent to 1.35 percent for euro while the interest rate for reserves in U.S. dollars idled at 1.20 percent per year.

Banks must submit at BNR 20 percent of their liabilities in lei and 40 percent of liabilities in foreign currency by February 23 under the form of mandatory minimum reserves. For liabilities with residual maturity of over 2 years, banks must constitute monthly reserves of 20 percent of the liabilities in lei with early repayment clause.

The level of the mandatory minimum reserves for liabilities in lei was last modified in July 2006 from 16 percent to 20 percent while for liabilities in foreign currency the rate hiked from 35 percent to 40 percent.

NewsIn