Romanians who fail to pay their pension contributions for three consecutive months may risk contract termination under a draft decision the Labor Ministry has submitted for public debate. read more...

Romanian businessmen Dinu Patriciu and Frank Timis have been included in this year’s wealthiest people list compiled by Forbes. read more...

ING Bank, the local branch of the Dutch group, ended last year with a 128 million-lei gross profit, up 52% against 2009 due to the significant cut in provision costs. read more...

Romanian consumer prices rose 0.77% in February from a month earlier, while the annual inflation accelerated to an unexpected 7.6%, the country’s statistics institute INS said Thursday. read more...

The over 130 officials and heads of the biggest companies in the six richest Arab countries, Bahrain, Kuweit, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, present in Bucharest in the last few days, are willing to bring hundreds of millions of euros to Romania, estimates a journalist from the English language newspaper Bahrain Tribune. read more...

BCR, the biggest bank on the market, will strongly re-tap into the consumer lending and credit card markets only as it sees there is demand, since it is not interested in participating in the shaping up of an unhealthy market, states Oana Petrescu, retail executive vice-president. read more...

Romania's Government has increased the budgets of the Ministry of Justice, Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) and Special Telecommunications Service (STS) by more than 35 million lei (EUR1=RON4.1902), to cover the higher pension fund contribution rates. read more...

The managers of the five financial investment companies (SIFs) last week met in Vienna with members of the management of "Erste" to discuss the dividend policy of BCR for the year 2010, according to sources who did not wish to be named. read more...

Turkey's Garanti Bank wants to secure a top ten position in the next two to three years, after having brought over 1bn euros since the onset of the crisis to develop its Romanian operations. However, profit is topmost and we will not buy market share at any price, says Murat Atay, general manager of Garanti Bank Romania. read more...

The Romanian Government on Monday approved a bill aiming to cut Interior Ministry budget spending and reduce staff numbers, people close to the matter said Tuesday. read more...

Romania’s leu surged against the euro in mid-trade Tuesday on a positive sentiment in the international markets and the central bank’s reference rate gained almost 0.5% to 4.1869 units, from 4.2065 units in the previous day. read more...

The three-month Euribor, the indicator to which the cost of loans to customers is tied, has gone up to 1.17% from 0.6% in the summer of 2010, on fears of ECB raising the key rate for euros. read more...

President Traian Băsescu intends to give another chance to the Financial Guard and to the National Customs Authority, which he is considering keeping as they are until December 31st in order to test their ability to fight tax evasion. read more...

Private pensions fund Eureko is the first to publish its detailed structure of investments, after the private pensions watchdog announced it was preparing to tighten reporting and transparency rules for all pension managers. read more...

Retail lending, be it consumer or mortgage loans, has recorded another weak start of the year, with banks' promotional offers failing to attract clients. read more...

BCR Leasing, the leasing division of the BCR group, has budgeted an eight-fold increase in the volume of funding granted, after in 2010 its turnover fell 87% to just 18 million euros, says Bogdan Speteanu, general manager of the company. read more...

Romanian consumer prices are likely to increase by 0.5% on the month in February, while the annual inflation is seen climbing to 7.3%, according to a median forecast of the country’s association of financial and banking analysts AAFBR. read more...

Tax evasion has become a vulnerability of the national security as over 30% of the resources bound for the state are subject of tax evasion or suspicions of tax evasion, Romanian President Traian Basescu said at an event on Monday. read more...

Fluctuations of up to 3-4% of the exchange rate should not be "paid attention to" and should not be immediately apparent in prices, says Mugur Isărescu, governor of the NBR (National Bank of Romania). read more...

Volksbank International, which owns the eighth largest bank in Romania in terms of assets, last year registered net losses of 36m euros from Romanian operations, stated Friedhelm Boschert, the bank's CEO, in an interview with a publication, also published by Reuters. read more...