More questions than answers?
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More questions than answers?

A run on Romania’s biggest bank was stopped in its tracks. The episode highlights nervousness in the system as banks are being readied for sale. Some on the inside say the situation’s not so bad as it looks and that the supervisors are getting tougher. But foreigners are still asking a host of questions, as Erik D’Amato reports.

Earlier this year, Romania's largest bank, Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), suffered a humiliating two-day run at the hands of its depositors following the collapse of the country's largest investment fund, the Fondul National de Investitii (FNI).


       
Candido: woes contained if not exactly cured

Many executives and officials blamed the stampede on the irrational fear of retail depositors that BCR was liable for losses at the fund or that the bank was otherwise in trouble. But one seasoned local banker believes the panics were the result of disinformation.


"They used phone banks manned by gypsies," the banker recalls, declining to attach a name to "they" but acknowledging with a wry smile his admiration for the conspirators. "They called around, saying 'so-and-so bank isn't safe.' And the next morning, people were lined up."


When this banker learned the calls were being made about his institution - the "they" in his case included troublesome borrowers, he says - he didn't waste a minute.




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