BOC THREATENS THE BANKS: "If you do not cut interest rates, we implement the Robin Hood tax "

Prime Minister Emil Boc announced on Friday, that the Government will implement the "Robin Hood" tax, if banks do not lower interest rates, in order to join the efforts of the Government and of the population, in this time of crisis.

According to NewsIn, Emil Boc said: "We hope that banks will do the right thing in a time of crisis and given the current situation of Romania"s economy. We have no direct ways to give orders to banks, but we do have alternative means at our disposal, to create a fiscal policy which would cause banks problems if they do not join the efforts that the Government and the Romanian citizens are doing, to weather this crisis. You know what I mean, the famous Robin Hood. But I won"t say any more and I hope there won"t be the need to do so".

The prime-minister said that once the foreign currency reserve of the National Bank increased and following the loan taken out from the IMF, and the minimum mandatory reserve requirements have been lowered, market liquidity will "unavoidably" increase.

Boc recently said, that the Government could decide to overtax bank profits if commercial banks in Romania do not honor their initial agreement with the Romanian state and withdraw their funding line.

"If foreign banks, through their Romanian subsidiaries, do not understand that they obtained sizeable profits in Romania when times were good, and now when times are tough, they will leave Romanians bearing the whole burden of the crisis and will withdraw their funding abroad, then we have the option of taking steps like the "Robin Hood" tax, for overtaxing profits", the Prime-Minister said.

Mr. Boc said that he does not have any signals that the banks intend to withdraw their lines of funding as a result of the cut of the minimum mandatory reserves.