Romanians can turn from tight bank financing to mutual help associations, central bank official says

The mutual help associations in Romania known as CAR will enhance their role in full financial turmoil in the context of an increased importance of domestic savings and a more difficult access to bank financing, according to Florin Georgescu, first vicegovernor of Romania's central bank (BNR).

Romania is turning towards domestic savings because it can no longer count as much as it did before on resources from abroad.
The non-banking financial institutions (IFN) in Romania registered by BNR total assets of several hundred million euros, probably half a billion euros, said Georgescu. 

The official added that the central bank was in favor of the current regulatory status of the CARs, without any prudential measures, only a notification of the central lender at set-up. Some 3,000 such units are currently operating on the Romanian market.

The IFNs accounted for about 10 percent of the total assets in Romania's banking system at the end of last year.

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