Covered deposits at the end of 2016

As at 31 December 2016, the eligible (guaranteed) deposits totaled RON 238.9 billion, recording an increase of almost RON 20 billion as compared with the end of 2015.

The FGDB’s guaranteed deposits had a positive trend during 2016 with an annual variation of + 9.1% due to increases recorded in all components - deposits of natural and legal persons, deposits in RON and foreign currency, deposits under and above the coverage ceiling.

The eligible (guaranteed) deposits represent over three quarters of all deposits with FGDB - 29 member credit institutions, Romanian legal persons authorized by National Bank of Romania.

According to the law, each guaranteed depositor benefits from a coverage of up to 100,000 euros (in equivalent RON) for the total amount of money they hold with a credit institution. Thus, when a bank is in trouble, and its deposits become unavailable, each depositor is guaranteed in full for any amount less than 100,000 euros, and those who have deposits exceeding this ceiling are covered for 100,000 euros.

At the end of 2016, the deposits covered by FGDB totaled RON 158.6 billion, exceeding by almost RON 10 billion their level as at 31 December 2015.

Deposits of natural persons in the amount of RON 147.8 billion as at 31 December 2016 increased by 9.4% as compared with the end of 2015, mainly on the account of deposits in national currency with lower values than the coverage ceiling.

The total amount of the natural persons’ covered deposits was over RON 132 billion at the end of 2016 (+ 7.4% as compared to the level of 31 December 2015). Covered deposits represent 89.3% of the total value of natural persons’ deposits.

The legal persons’ eligible deposits recorded an increase in 2016, with an annual variation of +8.6% to RON 91.1 billion as at 31 December 2016. This increase was due to the deposits in national currency (annual variation of +11.6%), while those denominated in euros and US dollars recorded slight reductions (-0.7% annual variation for deposits in euros and -2% for deposits in US dollars).

Unlike natural persons’ deposits, which are primarily of value under 100,000 euros (proportion of about 81% of total population’s deposits), the companies’ depositsabove the coverage ceiling have the highest share in the total value of deposits. For this reason, in case of the guaranteed legal persons, the covered deposits are below 30% of the total eligible deposits. As at 31 December 2016, the covered deposits of the legal persons totaled RON 26.5 billion (annual variation of + 2.8%).

In relation to the covered deposits, the resources for deposit guarantee continue to remain at a level over four times higher than the required EU standards. According to the European directive on deposit guarantee, by the year 2024 all deposit guarantee schemes in the Member States must attain a minimum target level of 0.8% of the total value of covered deposits.

For both categories of depositors – natural and legal persons – the covered deposits are fully protected if a bank enters into difficulty and is subject to a resolution measure or whether recourse is made to compensation payments.

For the purposes of the law governing the FGDB’s activity, the concept of deposit covers any credit balance, including accrued interest, resulted in funds held in an account or from transitory situations arising from transactions in banks, such as term deposits, the current accounts, the savings accounts, the card accounts, the joint accounts and other similar products.

Deposit categories excluded from the guarantee are set out in Annex 1 of Law 311/2015 on deposit guarantee schemes and the Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund. The data regarding deposits can be found on FGDB’s website, at www.fgdb.ro, the Statistics section.

3 February 2017