Analysis Of The Evolution Of The Competitive Environment In The Romanian Banking Sector, The 2010-2014 Period

The Paper “Analysis of the evolution of the competitive environment in the Romanian banking sector, the 2010- 2014 period” takes into account the fact that in the analysed period, the number of the active credit institutions in the Romanian market remained relatively constant. Thus, at the end of the first semester of 2014, the Romanian banking system comprised 40 credit institutions, out of which nine are branches of foreign banks, while after 2010 42 banks operated in the market (out of which nine were branches of foreign banks). The main factors that determine the dynamics of the number of competitors in the banking sector are: relatively high barriers to the entry on the market; high barriers to the exit from the market; the macroeconomic environment, more particularly, the uncertainties related to the main indicators and on the public policies with impact on the business environment. The comparative analysis of the evolution of interests with the situation of the bank charges for banking services covering the highest number of clients, indicates a market power clearly higher of the banks in relation to the clients holding debit cards and a relatively low competition level generated by the even level of the charges. An important cause of this situation consists of high barriers for consumers in relation to changing the supplier banking service (switching costs) (especially debit cards). Under such circumstances, the initiatives aimed at increasing the pro-competitive nature of the regulations, especially by eliminating the barriers to changing the supplier (such as the bank account portability), are particularly important from the perspective of the national competition authority.