Romania ranks last in the European Union in terms of the share of bank loans in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but first in terms of the share of commercial loans, with the latter having a non-performance rate almost three times higher than bank credit, according to chief economist of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Valentin Lazea.
"Commercial banks have significant resources that can be used for bank lending to companies, given that the ratio between loans and deposits is about 0.7. In other words, for every leu in deposits, only 70 bani are found in the form of loans. However, there is a great reluctance of Romanian companies to take out bank loans as long as they have at hand commercial lending or late payment of suppliers. This type of financing, commercial lending, although it might seem risk-free and cost-free, generates an important vulnerability, as commercial loans have a non-performance rate almost three times higher than bank loans, limiting in the medium and long term the development capacity of companies. A joint effort is needed, both on the part of commercial banks and companies, to make the transition from commercial credit to bank credit. Romania ranks last in the European Union in terms of the share of bank credit in GDP, but it ranks first in the European Union in terms of the share of commercial credit. So, it is clear that this relationship must change," Lazea said on Wednesday at the release of the "Romanian Entrepreneurship Index 2025."
According to him, entrepreneurs should access bank credit for the development of the company, but they must be more disciplined.
"Commercial lending has a non-performance rate almost three times higher. It turns out that it is three times riskier to take commercial credit than to take bank credit. Entrepreneurs prefer to survive, not to grow. If they wanted to grow, they would resort to bank credit. Somewhere they must be aware that this problem exists. We are in first place in Europe in commercial credit and last in bank credit. And I have shown that it is riskier to take commercial credit. It's easier, much more comfortable. You postpone the payment for six months, 12 months. With banks, it doesn't work like that. You have to be more disciplined."
Lazea also said that one third of Romanian companies, namely 260,000 companies, are unbankable because they do not comply with the minimum capitalisation requirements.
"Certain government programs to incentivise the capitalisation of enterprises, such as the Government Emergency Ordinance 153/2020, should be accompanied by controls that penalise entities that refuse to comply with the minimum capitalisation requirements," Lazea added. According to him, "no attempt was made on the coercion side."
"Romania's entry into the ranks of developed economies and winning membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OSCE), the club of highly industrialised nations, will require the gradual abandonment of some practices that belong to the stage of a developing economy, such as commercial credit or failing to comply with minimum capital requirements."
According to Lazea, analyses carried out within BNR show that successful companies in Romania, including SMEs, have an average capital value of about 29 times higher than the rest of the companies. At the same time, 60% of successful companies resort to bank loans.
"Financing from banks increases by 2.5 times the probability that a company will become successful. Using monitoring intervals of 5 years, it can be seen that 97.5% of micro-enterprises remain in this category, do not promote from micro-enterprises to small enterprises. Micro-enterprises that become medium-sized companies within 5 years are below 0.1%. In other words, the strategy is only for survival and not for growth and development. That is the situation we are in, as long as companies do not capitalise and do not increase the use of bank loansto the detriment of commercial credit."
At the same time, the BNR chief economist said that in 2025, the Romanian Entrepreneurship Index has improved by 0.5 percentage points from the previous edition, rising from 49 to 49.5 percentage points.
"This result was reached by cumulating the bonuses for 15 objective statistical indicators, with the scores of 10 subjective perceptions resulting from a survey addressed to entrepreneurs. We can say with satisfaction that, as regards the three objective statistical indicators directly under the control of the National Bank of Romania, they contribute with a cumulative improvement of 3.25 percentage points of the index compared to the previous edition," Lazea said.
At the same time, the inflation rate improved by 2.5 percentage points while the exchange rate stability deteriorated slightly by 0.25 percentage points, given higher marginal exchange rate volatility.
"The interest rate on deposits has improved by 1.25 percentage points, as a result of the transition of interest rates on deposits into the positive real territory compared to the negative real territory in the previous year. These would be the positive results recorded by the objective statistical indicators under the jurisdiction of the National Bank. As for the subjective perception resulting from the survey conducted among entrepreneurs, there is a problem related to the forecasts for lending to companies in 2025, where there is a deterioration of the perception of 0.25 percentage points compared to the previous year," added the chief economist of the NBR.
The paper "Romanian Entrepreneurship Index 2025" was launched on Wednesday, the latest survey of the Romanian business environment, this year in its second edition.
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