Which are the banking giants that transact Romania’s external debt? HSBC,…

The British, French and Americans dominated the top of the list of dealers of Romania’s medium-term foreign financing program MTN (medium term notes) for 2023, according to data from the Ministry of Finance. HSBC, Societe Generale and JPMorgan were on the podium in 2023 in the top banking giants selling Romania’s foreign bonds. Among the foreign financial groups that have large banks present in Romania, such as Erste, Societe Generale, ING Bank, UniCredit Bank, Raiffeisen and Citi, only the French from Societe Generale (which controls BRD in Romania) managed to get on the podium last year in top MTN dealers. The 4th place in the MTN dealer list was occupied in 2023 by the Americans from Citi, while the 5th place went to the French from BNP Paribas. The Austrians from Erste, which controls BCR on the local market, and the Austrians from Raiffeisen occupied the 6th and 9th places respectively in this top. In the 7th position in the top of MTN dealers, the Dutch from ING were placed, the 8th place goes to Goldman Sachs, and the 10th were the Italians from UniCredit. In 2023, the Romanian state borrowed 3.75 billion euros from foreign markets through two issues of Eurobonds and 4.52 billion dollars through four issues, i.e. the equivalent of about 8 billion euros.

Given that there were 16 dealers of Romania’s external financing program MTN, a simple calculation would show an average turnover of around 500 million euros for each banking giant, but the turnovers are different. Romania’s total external debt, public and private, increased in 2023 by around 25 billion euros, to almost 169 billion euros, according to the BNR.