The move of the issuers from the Rasdaq to the regulated market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange or to the Alternative Trading System (ATS), which is proposed by the CNVM (in a draft of the Romanian National Securities Commission, is affecting the rights and the confidence of investors and could lead to the demotion of over 95% of the issuers listed on the Rasdaq, a press release sent yesterday by the Association of Capital Market Investors (AIPC) states. read more...

A new way of paying family doctors, budget guidelines for drug prescription, a 70% limit on hospital headcount expenses, the elimination of the exception allowing retail pharmacies to be opened in malls, these are some of the novelties of 2011 in the healthcare system. read more...

OMV Petrom (SNP), the biggest Romanian company on the Stock Exchange, has not yet finalised the procedure for the exit of shareholders who in August voted against the company's break-up. read more...

The real estate company controlled by Swedish billionaire Ingvar Kamprad, the owner of IKEA, has brought a 33-year old Romanian at the helm of Romanian operations, who is focusing on Timpuri Noi project, but is also mandated to find new acquisition targets. read more...

Greece's Piraeus Bank, the only domestic bank now selling gold to retail clients, plans to deliver 250 kilograms of gold to clients this year, over 60% more than in 2010. read more...

Banca Transilvania, the fourth largest bank on the domestic market in terms of assets, is set to invest 15m euros in an Oracle technology, due to support the bank's entire activity, from retail to Internet banking. This is one of the biggest investments operated by a bank in an IT system. read more...

German group Metro has kept its sales level steady in Romania, at around 2 billion euros, according to ZF estimates, favouring Romania for investments over other countries with a stronger and more stable economy, such as Poland's. read more...

Over 100 investors, company managers and traders yesterday attended the seminar on international capital markets in 2011 organised by Ziarul Financiar in partnership with international investment bank Saxo Bank, thus confirming Romanians' high interest in foreign currency investments and foreign shares. read more...

BCR, the largest bank by assets, has only temporarily suspended from its offer RON-denominated real estate loans and euro-denominated unsecured consumer loans in order to have its cost structure match provisions of the law on credits granted to the population, which came into force at the end of last year. The bank will return with its full range of loans by the end of January, say BCR officials. read more...

The number of companies that sought protection under insolvency law rose by 9% compared with 2009, with the number of voluntary deregistrations up by 292%, while the number of voluntary dissolutions fell 78%, with the number of companies suspending their operations down by over 50%. read more...

Romanian political leaders are going public with tough statements on the policy of making fuel prices more expensive pursued by players in the oil sector, but what their statements have in common is the lack of solutions. read more...

Romanian consumer prices rose by an expected 0.53% on the month in December, matching November figures, and the annual inflation accelerated to 7.96%, the country’s statistics institute INS said Wednesday. read more...

Romanian unemployment rate fell to 6.87% in December, from 6.95% a month earlier, the country’s employment agency ANOFM said Wednesday. read more...

Romania should not take up loans from the IMF, but from international markets, like China or Russia because IMF measures are more costly, PSD leader Victor Ponta declared in an interview for HotNews.ro. read more...

Romtelecom will lay off about 1000 to 1400 employees this year to cut costs and increase the efficiency, the operator announced. Romtelecom launched over 20 transformation projects that will take place until 2013 and aim at improving processes, from sales to installation, increasing efficiency in call centers and shops or simplifying the products portfolio. read more...

Health insurance houses throughout Romania have halted activity until Monday to fix problems with the IT system used to keep tabs on social healthcare contributions. read more...

The Romanian leu continued its upward trend in mid-trade Wednesday, on a positive sentiment in the region, and the central bank announced a reference rate of 4.2523 units, from 4.2581 units a day earlier. read more...

Romania is not facing a flu epidemic and the four cases of infection with the AH1N1 and AH3N2 viruses registered between January 3 and January 9, 2011 have been isolated, the Health Ministry said Wednesday. read more...

The International Monetary Fund sees significant upside risks to Romania's 2011 inflation outlook coming from potentially higher food and energy prices and a weakening of the leu, according to the fund's report after the sixth review of the stand-by arrangement. read more...

Romanian authorities should “maintain vigilance” over small banks, which are faced with a rapidly deteriorating loan quality and whose provisions are below the system average, the International Monetary Fund said in an analysis. read more...