International rating agency Moody's has downgraded the International Investment Bank's (IIB) long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings by four notches to Ba1 from A3, placing it just under the upper bound of the junk area. At the same time, Moody's has placed IIB's ratings on review for further downgrade. The rating action was triggered by the unexpected joint announcement of four European Union shareholders to plan to withdraw from the bank, published on March 2. In their announcement, the Ministries of Finance of the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria stated their intention to discontinue their shareholder participation in IIB, aiming for an orderly withdrawal. Consequently, Moody's no longer assumes that these shareholders will provide additional non-contractual support to the bank in a situation of financial stress. The four EU member states' likely withdrawal will leave Russia (Ca negative) and Hungary (Baa2 stable) as the major shareholders in IIB and increases ownership concentration, implying that even if Russia and the remaining shareholders remained committed to the institutions, the ability to provide support is significantly lower going forward. Moody's considers ownership concentration a Governance consideration under its ESG framework.
The number of people in Romania at risk of poverty stood at 3.59 million people in 2024, 375,000 fewer than in 2023, representing a 9.4% decrease, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, or INS. Despite the improvement, nearly one in five Romanians was affected by poverty last year. According to INS, 19% […]
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Cluj-Napoca carried out multiple searches on Tuesday, July 1, at the Sibiu International Airport and the Sibiu County Council as part of an investigation into suspected fraud involving a EUR 54 million EU-funded infrastructure project. A total of 24 locations were searched across Bucharest, Brașov, and Sibiu county, […]
A Romanian taxi driver who scammed 90-year-old Nigerian Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka was detained by police on Sunday, June 29, according to media reports. On Friday, June 27, the venerable Nigerian arrived at Bucharest's Otopeni Airport. He got into a taxi and asked to be taken to a hotel downtown. At the destination, the […]
Costin Șerban, a Romanian entrepreneur, is digitalizing the construction sector in the United Kingdom with an ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution developed over 12 years and an investment of GBP 1.6 million (EUR 1.86 million). Șerban’s cloud-based ERP platform is called Abilo, was developed by the Romanian IT company Obi Systems, and is dedicated to […]
Border checks between Bulgaria and Romania have officially been lifted on July 1, as part of the implementation of the Schengen Agreement. The lifting marks the end of the transitional period of heightened control at the internal border, which had remained in place for six months following their accession to the Schengen area by land […]
Remus Vulpescu became CEO of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on Tuesday, July 1, taking over from Adrian Tănase as the stock exchange grapples with a market dominated by government bonds. Vulpescu, 53, is a graduate in political and legal sciences from the University of Bucharest and holder of an EMBA obtained in 2017. He […]
