Bank – Universal Credit Institutions☆

Abstract Banks represent a type of credit institutions, subject to the provisions of the Government Emergency Ordinance No 99/2004 on credit institutions and adequacy of capital. The special law offers them the legal regime of companies, their constitutive elements – independent organization, own property and object of activity – acting like circumstances, making them special. From the perspective of the activity purpose, the Special law acknowledges the principle of the universal bank, offering to it the possibility to perform a diversity of banking operations, but also activities connected to the latter. Yet, the freedom of action that banks enjoy must transgress neither the public interest nor the need for an open competition, the lawmaker instituting some limitations, restrictions and even interdictions within banking activity, which will be analyzed by the present work. On the one hand, the current study is aimed to delineate the legal statute of the universal bank, setting it apart from specialized banks, while on the other hand to establish the interferences of banks with other agents within the banking market, particular the one regarding credits. The present work is based on the Romanian Special law and the banking literature and specialized practice.