From one corner of the central square eight different banks were in sight of each other: RBS, UniCredit Tiriac, GEC Bank, CITI, Banca Transyvania, JTP Bank, ING, Volksbank and BCR (which is Erste – the Austrian bank). Elsewhere in the small city centre I also noted Raiffeisen Bank (another Austrian), BRD (which is actually Societe General), Piraus Bank (Greek)."

As you can se lots of Austrian, Soc Gen, Citi, UniCredit and RBS." – pretty much sums it up (JTP I belive is OTP Bank from Hungary).
RBS came in Romania after buying ABN Amro.
What I wanted to say was that in 2000-2007 Romania went through a big economic boom, people expected wages and propriety prices to keep raising to EU levels.
As BobRocket said "The increase in the price of Romanian property has been due to the influx of 'cheap' credit into an 'unsophisticated' market (this is borderline fraud)".

I didn't know that. It dos rather cast the rumour and news stories reporting it in a different light.

BobRocket,

I'd be most interested in anything further you can tell us about UK proeprty puchases in the East. Even annecdotal opens a window.

As for Panama (not sure where that came up from ) but the Panama Israel connection is deep, dangerous and live.

Not going to happen.

The Panama connection is Ollie North (and cohorts)(Isreali and Iranian contacts are, when you think about it, are ironic really)

I know some people who bought properties in Bulgaria a few years ago, I will ask about the details of the financing but I'm sure a lot of them bought from the UK.
(these people will have been partly responsible for the property boom out there, this is someones pension, sold to them by a FIRE salesperson on commission (who didn't know what they were) selling)

I have no idea how much the illicit arms trading is worth but the Global illicit drugs trade is $500bn as estmated by the UN in 2009
This is seriously liquid money
This is seriously secret money
We only see a bit of it.
It does have an effects trail though.

The trade in humans is in every way wrong.

Assigning an Asset Value to a Human is wrong.

People are Priceless not Valueless.

I don't know. My limited knowledge says the UK banks are involved in a very small way.

I had the same notion about teaser and SVR. But I don't think the UK were much in evidence in Romania and the region in tehbubble years. It is mostly local, Greek, some French, Italian and Austrian.

That said when I was in Romania recently I did see this,(this is from this article – http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2011/05/money-laundering-and-drugs-in-romania.html

"I was in Timisoara Romania last week. Timisoara is a city of roughly 320k people on the Western edge of Romania. On the drive in to the city I was struck by the huge number of different banks I kept passing.

From one corner of the central square eight different banks were in sight of each other: RBS, UniCredit Tiriac, GEC Bank, CITI, Banca Transyvania, JTP Bank, ING, Volksbank and BCR (which is Erste – the Austrian bank). Elsewhere in the small city centre I also noted Raiffeisen Bank (another Austrian), BRD (which is actually Societe General), Piraus Bank (Greek)."

As you can se lots of Austrian, Soc Gen, Citi, UniCredit and RBS.

It would be RBS wouldn't it. So you never know.

It's a regular roll call of the insolvent.

Romanian house prices, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_property_bubble, it doesn't look good.

The increase in the price of Romanian property has been due to the influx of 'cheap' credit into an 'unsophisticated' market (this is borderline fraud).

There is little you can do about that now.

However, if the wiki is correct, a defaulted property will not yield to the lender (or his insurer) the amount owed, this improves your situation (you have leverage)

The lender most likely cannot afford for you to default which implies that you do have some can kicking ability open to you.
Approach the lender, suggest that the current repayment regime is unsustainale, show them a sustainable one that involves a haircut (such as debt forgiveness, interest forgiveness, extended payment (at lower rate) etc.) for the lender but not a total loss (ala greece)

Gather evidence of property prices since 2005 and lending practices in the same period, is there a case that these could be mis-sold.

At the end of the day, if you bought the property in good faith then you should repay the debt, however we all need a roof over our heads, if you feel that you (and the Romanian people) have been unfairly exploited then you have every right to challenge the lien that has been placed upon you.

Golem, I know that large amounts of Swiss denominated loans were sold to Eastern Europe, do you know if UK banks were involved with the selling of these loans (given these loans are fixed interest for a period and then revert to SVR as this is a common way for selling mortages in the UK (low start))

And what do you bet that the UK tax authorities never find any 'reasonable suspicion' to ask about any of the MP's, Lords, Bank CEO's, Lawyers, Accountants or Media owners who make up the Westminster nest?

Thank you for the link. TJN are excellent.

"A similar agreement with the UK will follow soon, probably within just days or weeks. It is important that civil society and parliamentarians in the UK and elsewhere understand the treaty and its implications. They will soon be facing a similar deal.

The Swiss agreement with Germany consists of two main parts: a retroactive source ("withholding") tax on undeclared German assets from the past, and a withholding tax on various kinds of capital income in the future. In both cases, the tax will be raised and transferred to Germany anonymously. And it will be considered "final". That is, capital holders will no longer have to declare their assets to the German tax authorities. They can stay hidden."

See http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2011/08/swiss-german-tax-deal-more-dominoes-to.html

From what you say it sounds as if the banks were free to charge what they liked how they liked? Are you able to tell us anything about the kind of rate schemes the banks pushed on people? And who are the larger banks there? I would be interested to see which West European banks have their hands in Romanian pockets.

Don't wirry if you don;t know or have far better things to do with your time. I'm grateful for what you've already told us.