THE ROLE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS FROM ROMANIA IN THE ATTRACTION OF

In this paper I wish to highlight the position of commercial banks from Romania in the absorption of Europeanfunds. Providing the financial resources necessary in order to carry out the project activities is one of the problems thatmany users have experienced. Being aware of this matter, but also constrained by governmental requirements, mostbanks have decided to introduce such credit facilities as well in their loan portfolio. As far as information disseminationand advertising are concerned, commercial banks have proven to occupy a leading position, but most important are theperformance levels achieved by them since they started accessing these Structural Funds. In this paper I will presentthe funding opportunities in the field of European funds offered by two large leading banks: types of credits, benefits,commissions, statistics and even successful projects to which they are partners. Each bank has its own marketingstrategy to promote these products, but over time one can notice that they are becoming increasingly interested in thesegrants, while the bank personnel is involved as a target group in various European programs. The interest of thebanking system in supporting grants recipients can be noticeable even form the project writing phase of the project,when the banks offer financial advice in determining the estimate budget. With all the help from commercial banks,Romania has managed to achieve a rate of Structural Funds absorption of only 10%, which is outrun even Bulgaria.