Romanian Senate adopts draft law making Romania’s national bank leadership liable to criminal prosecution

The Romanian Senate has adopted the draft law making the leadership of the Council of Administration of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) liable to criminal prosecution.

The new draft law, proposed by Senator Daniel Zamfir, eliminates the rule that said that the members of the Council of Administration of the central bank are not liable to civil or criminal investigations in the event that the court rules that they have omitted to carry out any act related to the exercise of prudential supervision.

The draft law was adopted on 27 September. The Romanian government told the Parliament that such a provision needs the approval of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) itself, by virtue of the decision of the Constitutional Court on the loyal collaboration between institutions, as well as in virtue of the European Union regulation in the sector.

Next, the draft law will be sent to the Chamber of Deputies for adoption.The senator who proposed the draft law argued that the members of the Council of Administration of the BNR have a privileged status that exempts them of civil and criminal prosecution. The current regulations, he argued, allow the leadership of the BNR not to take responsibility for consequences of decisions of major importance on the Romanian economy.

The law on the status of the National Bank of Romania rules that the BNR has exclusive competence to authorise the credit institutions and and is responsible for the prudential supervision of the credit institutions it has authorized to operate in Romania, being empowered to issue regulations, to take measures for the imposition compliance with them and to apply legal sanctions in cases of non-compliance and to check and verify, on the basis of the reports received and on-the-spot inspections, the records, accounts and any other documents of authorized credit institutions that it considers necessary.