Mugur Isarescu, governor of the National Bank of Romania, speaks to Kit Gillet about the pandemic, key recent developments for Romania’s banking sector and the outlook for the period ahead.
For eastern European economies like Romania, the unsettled times continue. The pandemic took hit economic growth and now the war in nearby Ukraine, coupled with high energy prices and rising inflation, could lead to renewed challenges.
Last year was the most profitable year on record for Romanian banks, but this year is set to be different.
The president of the EBRD, Odile Renaud-Basso, on the bank’s support for Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.
It has not been a great start to the year for the global mergers and acquisitions market, with deal volumes down across all regions.
Following some of the harshest sanctions ever imposed on a country, Russia could face a banking crisis within a year as its economy braces for the worst contraction in nearly three decades.
How borrowers and issuers can navigate the exposure risk to recently sanctioned creditors is a difficult question to answer.
How can banks learn from this experience to be better prepared for future geopolitical conflicts?
Italian and French banks carry the greatest risks to their financial prospects among foreign lenders operating in Russia, according to the latest statistics from BIS.
Large volumes of debt from Russian borrowers are at risk of being pushed into junk status.
Removal of Russian banks from Swift will not cause serious disruptions to the country’s lenders.
Poland’s robust growth in 2021 is expected to continue in 2022. However, the economy is not immune to emerging challenges, including inflation, geopolitical tensions and raising interest rates.
The country has recouped the lost growth from the peak of the pandemic and is set for a sustained period of growth.
The country’s leading lenders possess robust balance sheets, as well as ambitious plans to cut costs and further digitise their operations.
Péter Csányi, deputy CEO, head of the digital division at OTP Group, is making sure the bank's new supercomputer speaks Hungarian.
The country’s banking sector has shown strength and resilience by offloading problem assets during the pandemic and maintaining improved compliance and regulatory standards.
The governor of Poland’s central bank, Narodowy Bank Polski, talks to The Banker about interest rate increases, foreign currency denominated mortgages and the sector’s exposure to transformation-related climate risks.
Last year saw a significant increase in equity raising across Europe’s equity market in a bid to fuel the continent’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
The CEO of VTB Capital Investments talks to Burhan Khadbai about the macroeconomic landscape, the rise of retail investing in Russia and the asset manager’s ambitions to get involved in the growing cryptocurrency market.
Cyprus’s finance minister talks to The Banker about how the country’s economy has coped during the pandemic and the recovery ahead.