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Headquarters | Bucharest | ||
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Established | April 1880 | ||
Governor | Mugur Isărescu | ||
Central bank of | Romania | ||
Currency |
Romanian leu RON (ISO 4217) |
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Reserves | €32.104 billion (30 November 2015) | ||
Bank rate | 1.75 | ||
Website | www.bnr.ro |
The National Bank of Romania (Romanian: Banca Națională a României, BNR) is the central bank of Romania and was established in April 1880. Its headquarters are located in the capital city of Bucharest.
The National Bank of Romania is responsible for the issue of the Romanian leu and as such it sets the monetary policy, holds the currency reserves and manages the exchange rate.
The bank's first governor was Ion Câmpineanu. Eugeniu Carada is associated to the National Bank, as he was the founder of the bank and he was elected director of the bank, but he never accepted the role of Governor.
In 1916, in the wake of the Central Powers' invasion, the valuables of the National Bank of Romania, together with many other valuables (the Romanian Treasure) were sent to Moscow for safekeeping, but were never returned (except for the Pietroasele treasure - now on display at the National Museum of Romanian History, the numismatic collection of the National Bank, some paintings and archives).
On July 28, 1959, an armed group of six Jewish Romanian, members of the Romanian Communist Party apparatus (the Ioanid Gang: Alexandru Ioanid, Paul Ioanid, Igor Sevianu, Monica Sevianu, Sașa Mușat and Haralambie Obedeanu) were alleged to have stolen from an armored car of the National Bank of Romania 1,600,000 lei (about 250,000 U.S. dollars at 1959 prices). It was allegedly the most famous bank robbery in the Eastern bloc. Beyond accusations based on various ideological guidelines, no reasons for the alleged robbery, or for the Ioanid group to have perpetrated it, were ever given at the trial.