But we better fasten our seat belts. It is not necessary that we will face more negativity than now, but unforeseen situations may arise, – warned Bohdan Neatsu, chairman of CEC Bank and president of the Board of Directors of the Association of Romanian Banks, at the Romanian Banking Forum, organized by Finmedia, on Wednesday.

“There was a lot of talk here about how much uncertainty there is in terms of macroeconomic indicators, in terms of financial development, in terms of those elements that could trigger the beginning of a crisis or the beginning of a recession. It depends on how we want to see all these things, Neatsu also said.

This is the main role of commercial banks, since, starting from such signals, they find the solutions to continue financing the economy. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen all kinds of elements that continue to test us, says the representative of the bankers. “We have learned to work remotely, we have significantly accelerated digitization. The pandemic came, and other surprises followed it. We see this military conflict, which at any moment can escalate to one side or the other. Things are far from resolved. Events have led to rapid inflation, rapid price growth, an energy crisis, or these superimposed crises, and other things that may appear,” Neatsu explains.

In his opinion, the growth of interest rates is coming to an end. “Should this increase in interest rates have happened? Yes, I had to! Even so, this issue has an unpleasant side for those with credit. But, on the other hand, we must also compensate those who provide financing for the economy – our depositors. Romania has already gone through similar phases, even with much higher interest rates and, if you like, much higher inflation,” says Bohdan Neatsu.

There is no question of comparing ourselves to those times, because then we were talking about a different type of transition. But even then we managed and found solutions to move on,” he added.

We said at the beginning that it is good to fasten yourself with this seat belt… It is more important to make sure or understand that we have a long way to go through these uncertainties and it is very important not to get tired!” he declared. Neacsu