Save Romania Union (USR) deputy Alexandru Dimitriu has submitted to Parliament a bill aimed at facilitating the recovery of damages allegedly suffered by Romanians due to what he described as the "artificial increase" of the interbank offered rate ROBOR.
"Today I submitted a legislative project through which Romanians and the state, affected by the artificial increase of ROBOR through collusion between banks, can more easily recover their money. We are not just talking about sanctions for banks, which will likely be handed down by the Competition Council. It is crucial to talk about real compensation for those who have already paid. In 2022, the ROBOR increased several times in a very short period, and for millions of Romanians instalments almost doubled," Dimitriu said at a press conference.
He explained that the bill seeks to address what he called an imminent issue, referring to an investigation involving ten banks in Romania. "The investigation is close to completion. The Competition Council has already asked the ten banks to submit their point of view, which in this procedure indicates that there will be a sanction. Whether they admit the act or not will determine the level of the fine," he added.
Dimitriu also said the Romanian state incurred losses too, as it borrowed based on ROBOR. Local authorities, he explained, lost around 30 million RON per month for each additional percentage point of the index. "According to estimates, one extra percentage point in ROBOR means roughly 58 million RON per month from the population, 137 million RON from companies, and 29 million RON from local administrations - a total of about 225 million RON per month, or over 2.5 billion RON per year," he stated.
The USR bill amends and supplements Government Emergency Ordinance No. 170/2020 on actions for compensation in cases of competition law violations, introducing a clearer mechanism to maximize the chances of damage recovery.
According to Dimitriu, the state and administrative-territorial units would be able to recover the owed amounts with support from the Ministry of Finance. The draft stipulates that the Finance Ministry, as representative of the state, "is authorized to undertake all necessary legal steps, including the formulation of legal actions, to recover compensation due to central and local public authorities and institutions that qualify as injured parties."
"For individuals, we have created a mechanism that will allow them to stand up to the banking giants. An individual cannot fight a bank alone and expect to be on equal footing. We have created a mechanism that allows individuals to go to court and sue banks through collective actions," Dimitriu explained.
The draft also provides that, to ensure effective access to justice, individuals may act as joint plaintiffs, with the provisions of Articles 59 - 60 of the Civil Procedure Code applying.
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