English Section

• EU banks aren't ready 

Shares of Austrian bank "Erste" fell almost 16% in Bucharest yesterday, after the bank announced it would take "extraordinary measures", booking net losses of about 800 million Euros for this year.

The departure of Finnish group Nokia from Romania and the layoff of 2,200 employees represented a true breath of fresh air for the Romanian government, by providing it with an opportunity to release a wave of announcements about the investments...

• EU banks aren't ready 

In the coming years, audit firm "Grant Thornton" wants to reach a market share of 5% of the Romanian audit market, which it says it is valued at 150-200 million Euros a year, which would place it in the 6th-7th position, according to...

Volksbank Romania has relaunched its banking operations products. The bank has simplified its offer, which will now only include three types of current accounts, as opposed to the six types of current accounts included in the previous offer,...

Romania"s 5-year CDS rate (ed. note: Credit Default Swaps) nearly doubled, in Q3, rising to 420 basis points, according to a report published yesterday by "CMA Data Vision".

• State aid of 8 million Euros for the hiring of 100 workers 

The NBR governor recently criticized the lack of professionalism in the financial media, and his rant included the organizers of the "Romania Financial Forum 2011".

The regulation concerning consumer lending will push the Romanian society towards "civilized lending", which represents an act of normalcy, Mugur Isărescu, the governor of the NBR explained yesterday.

While shopping in one of the Hermes luxury stores (famous for their tasteful products and eye-popping prices - among other things, the company is a shareholder of the Jean-Paul Gaultier design house), Kathy Fuld, the wife of Dick Fuld, former CEO...

The priority for next year will be for our society to escape the patterns of the previous electoral years, with promises more or less out of touch with reality, Mugur Isărescu, the governor of the NBR said yesterday.

While shopping in one of the Hermes luxury stores (famous for their tasteful products and eye-popping prices - among other things, the company is a shareholder of the Jean-Paul Gaultier design house), Kathy Fuld, the wife of Dick Fuld, former CEO...

The Pandora jewelry stores entered the Romanian market this autumn. Lucian Adochiţei, manager at Pandora Jewelry Romania, says that since the launch, sales have exceeded expectations.

The New Civil Code, which came into force on October 1st, 2011, is likely to bring about radical changes in the academic area of law classes, discourses and monographs, as well as in the business sector.

Maker of high-class wines "Rotenberg" "skipped last year"s harvest", according to Mihail Rotenberg, the owner of the wine caves of Ceptura: "The 2010 viticultural year was worthless.

He likes to say that he has now reached that part of life where he spends what he has accumulated in the other part, but Mişa Rotenberg, who lives in two locations - in Romania, where he was born and in Israel, where he made money - told us this...

Yesterday evening, the ministers were summoned at the Victoria Palace, for a government meeting which would discuss the decision of Nokia to shut down the plant of Jucu.

By the end of the year, Finnish group Nokia will close down the cellphone factory of Jucu, in the county of Cluj, laying off 2200 employees.

• The capital market watchdog has blocked the transactions with other shares managed by AVAS, which the court appointed executor was planning to sell sale 

Interview with Vasile Marius Crişan - the general manager of National Company "Romarm" SA

Yesterday, at the Braşov Business Days forum, the mayor of Braşov, George Scripcaru, said, that the city may apply for hosting the Winter Olympics in 2022.

2.5 billion lei (about 581 million Euros) was injected yesterday in the banking system by the National Bank of Romania (NBR), with a one-week maturity, at the monetary policy rate, of 6.25%/year.

• My dear colleagues, the planet is entering in a crucial period - our world, is about to change, for all of us. 

The members of the Braşov county council yesterday approved the proposal of the county"s executive to begin the privatization procedure through the selling of shares in the industrial parks it controls - Metrom Industrial Park and Carfil...

At the end of last week, the Ministry of the Economy, Trade and Business Environment announced, following the working visit of Minister Ion Ariton in Munich, that he met with the officials of the Continental and Dräxlmaier groups, and they...

The shareholders of SIF "Moldova" are interested first and foremost in the listing of BCR, whereas other alternatives, such as selling their shares or exchanging them for shares of Erste Bank, represent more of a "plan B" for...

UBS chief executive Oswald Gruebel resigned over the scandal surrounding the rogue trading loss of 2.3 billion dollars incurred by the investment banking division, being replaced in the interim by Sergio Ermotti, UBS Europe, Middle East and...

The officials of "Hidroelectrica" said that in the first six months of 2011, the company had a turnover of 1.64 billion lei, up from approximately 1.5 billion lei in the similar period of 2011.

The creation of the new Oltenia and Hunedoara energy companies will be completed by the end of June 2012.

The current economic crisis has lead to increasingly outspoken opinions on the odds of local revolts or even large scale wars.

• In 2011 - The Tear of Ovidiu, produced by Murfatlar, earned a medal for the fourth time 

Of all the activities to which people have constantly dedicated huge volumes of material and human resources, of intelligence and imagination, war remains by far the least understood.

The shareholders of SIF "Muntenia" no longer look at the listing of BCR as anything other than a "plan B".