BEM needs 500-700m lei to overcome difficult situation

A financial injection of 500-700 million lei will enable to improve the situation at Banca de Economii (BEM), National Bank governor Dorin Dragutanu said Thursday. He voiced hope that the state will provide a part of this sum within its 56% shareholding, while the other shareholders can give the rest of the money, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The sum that the state should allocate may be lower if the new Administration Board of the BEM takes measures to sell the foreclosed collateral and reduce the overdue loans assessed at 1.3 billion lei in its portfolio. It should also recover the loans that cannot be classed as delinquent. The overdue payments on them total 200 million lei,” Dorin Dragutanu told a news conference. He also said that without competent and responsible management at the BEM, the announced financial injection will not be able to remedy the situation. “Banca de Economii, in which the state has a majority holding, is not a bank that the state can use to support certain enterprises and to solve other problems,” said the governor. Asked if it’s true that foreign experts or a team from the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the EBRD or other institutions may be included in the bank’s Administration Board, Dorin Dragutanu said such practices exist and the BEM would welcome such initiatives, but the decision is to be taken by the Government and Parliament.