6,000 euros are guaranteed in the bank

The banking deposits of the people and companies will be guaranteed in the limit of 6,000 euros starting from next month. Until January 2007 this limit will reach the level of 20,000 euros.

This new limit is almost double than the current value of it, established at 135.24 million lei (3,300 euros) for the first semester of this year. Its increase is possible due to the in force of the 178/2008 law for modifying and completing the Governmental order number 39/1996 which refers to the set up and functioning of the Deposits Warranty in the Banking System Fund. According to this law, starting from the 1st of July, the ones for which there will be warranties will be not only the persons but also the companies. The limit per depositor is to be set for the second semester of this year at about 6,000 euros.

Increases

The good news for the depositors is that this limit will continue to increase until Romania will adhere to the EU. So, starting from the 1st of January 2005, this limit will increase up to 10,000 euros. From the 1st of January 2006 its value is set to be 15,000 euros and, this way, starting from the 1st of January 2007 it will be valued at 20,000 euros. The equivalent in lei of these sums will be computed at the time the bankruptcy procedure will begin according to the currency rates of the National Bank of Romania. The warranties will be awarded only when the conditions mentioned above are met. For the banks in which the bankruptcy procedure has started before the 1st of July 2004, the warranties will be awarded according to the value of the limit in the period the procedure started.

Money

The sums awarded to indemnify the depositors will be taken from the banks’ contribution to the Warranty Fund, from the recovery of the money from the banks which are already bankrupt and from the incomes made available due to the investments of the Fund. Though the people will receive more money they won’t have to pay larger errands for their deposits. "Due to the fact that the companies’ deposits will be included in the guarantee scheme the sum from which the money are coming to the Fund will be increased", says Marin Predescu, the director of the Warranty Fund. Due to the increase of this basis the applied percentage share will decrease by 0.8% at present, by 0.5% in 2005, by 0.4% in 2006 and by 0.3% in 2007.

The warranty won’t be awarded in case that

The Warranty Fund doesn’t have to give back the money in the case:

of the superintendents, directors, censors, independent audience, important stock owners and their families that had deposits at the institution that became bankrupt

that the deposits belong to the ones whose hire-purchase systems led to the bankruptcy of the credit institution

of the deposits of the credit institution, including the ones coming from their own funds

of the deposits of financial institutions

of the deposits of the insurance-reinsurance societies, including the ones belonging to the insurance intermediates

of the deposits of the mutual funds, investments societies, pension funds

of the deposits of the public central and local authorities, of the national companies, national societies, commercial societies, other than the micro-enterprises and the small and medium enterprises

of the non-nominative deposits, of the collateral ones, that represent warranties for the operations that were developed by the depositor with the bankrupt credit institution

of the legally obliged debts, as well as in the case of obligations coming from the banknotes awarded by the credit institution

of the deposits coming from transactions for which there exist final judicial decisions that refers to financial fraude.

Translation: SORIN BALAN