Overview
The Banca Națională a României is Romania's central bank and the prudential supervisor of the country's credit institutions, payment institutions and electronic money institutions; it also houses the national bank-resolution authority. Its Annual Report 2025, published in June 2026, records a profit of RON 2.34 billion (≈ €0.46 billion), driven mainly by net income of RON 9.02 billion (≈ €1.78 billion) from managing foreign-currency assets and liabilities, with external assets up 11.1% year-on-year in nominal RON terms. Romania's gold reserve stood at 103.6 tonnes, of which 61.2 tonnes in custody at the Bank of England. Everything below is BNR's own data, from its FY2025 annual report.
Regulated sectors
4BanksPayment institutionsE-money institutionsCredit institutions
Figures as published by Banca Națională a României for FY2025. Source: BNR Raport anual 2025 (Romanian) (Published June 2026). Data as of 31 December 2025.
Leadership
2Mugur IsărescuGovernorsince 1990
Leonardo BadeaFirst Deputy Governorsince October 2024
Full board
Organisation (FY2025)
Staff2,130Whole institution — 31 December 2025. Not supervision capacity
Operating expenses≈€159.8MFY2025 — derived: personnel + administrative + depreciation + other general. Monetary-policy interest and revaluation effects excluded from the operating-expense figure by construction
Estimate Supervised population (31 Dec 2025)
Total authorised/registered institutions~219Composition: 29 credit institutions (incl. 10 EU branches) + 175 general-register NBFIs + 12 payment institutions + 3 e-money institutions. Small dual-registration overlap noted
Estimate Licensing (FY2025)1 PI authorised · 1 rejected · 5 pending
Prudential inspections28 at credit institutions20 planned + 8 ad-hoc; plus 4 at NBFIs and 23 AML actions
Financial result 2025
BNR profitRON 2.34bn (~€0.46bn)BNR notes it does not pursue profit maximisation
Net FX asset/liability management incomeRON 9.018bn (~€1.78bn)+1% y/y; main profit driver
Reserves 2025
External assets (RON value, 31 Dec 2025)+11.1% y/y nominal (+RON 40.23bn)+1.3% in real terms
Gold reserve103.6 tonnes61.2t at the Bank of England
Reserve allocation shiftCash & deposits share 36.3% (2024) → 32.2% (2025)Structural reallocation noted in the report
Notable 2025
Bank consolidationSector consolidated from 32 → 29 credit institutions — Alpha Bank Romania into UniCredit; OTP Romania into Banca Transilvania; Credit Europe folded into its Dutch parent. Trade Republic entered via a Romanian branch.
Reserve reallocationThe FY2025 report documents a strategic reallocation of reserves away from cash and deposits toward higher-yielding instruments, with gold treated as a core component of the reserve architecture.
Gold reserve above the Governor's ~100t capGovernor Isărescu — in office since 1990 — has publicly capped the gold reserve at ~100 tonnes; it stood at 103.6t at end-2025.
Technical assistance to NBMBNR provides sustained technical assistance to the National Bank of Moldova on financial-sector supervision and governance.
OECD accessionRomania's OECD accession process runs through BNR-supported evaluations of financial-sector legislation.
Key legislation
3Law No 312/2004 on the Statute of the National Bank of RomaniaCentral-bank statute
Government Emergency Ordinance No 99/2006 on credit institutions and capital adequacyBanking (CRD/CRR)
Law No 209/2019 on payment servicesPSD2 transposition
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