A court in Calarasi, southern Romania, issued a 29-day preventive arrest warrant against 16 people charged with bank fraud, in a case involving 15 million euro worth of damages to the state. According to magistrates, starting in 2005, an organized crime group formed taking out loans under false pretenses. The key members of the group had borrowed money from loan sharks, paying back their debts with bank loans obtained with false documents.

The overdue salaries of employees in the Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea chemical works in southern Romania will be paid from the Guarantee Fund, via the Labour Ministry, by mid-April. The statement was made on Monday by Romanian minister of economy, Varujan Vosganian after a meeting in Bucharest with representatives of trade unions in Oltchim, of the Labour Ministry and of the company’s judicial administrator. Vosganian added that all the Oltchim employees to be made redundant will receive severance payments. Hundreds of employees with the chemical works protested on Monday at the company headquarters, in anger with the decision of the judicial administrator to lay off around 1,000 people. They had also protested throughout last week, when they blocked traffic on a national road.

The central bank of Cyprus (BCC) Monday decided to suspend for a week the operations of Bank of Cyprus in Romania. According to a news release issued by Bank of Cyprus Romania, during this period customers may use the ATM network. The central bank of Cyprus made this decision to identify a solution to sell the Romanian subsidiary of Bank of Cyprus. Last week, the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isarescu explained that Bank of Cyprus controls 0.7% of the total assets in the Romanian banking system, and has all deposits fully guaranteed. Cyprus secured a 10-billion euro loan from the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank, to avoid the collapse of its banking system and defaulting on payments. As part of the bailout plan, Nicosia accepted a tough set of measures, in which the largest bank in the country, Bank of Cyprus, will be subject to a restructuring and reorganisation programme.