Raluca Nicolescu, acting Director General of the IDB
The Investment and Development Bank (IDB, BID) must function as a multiplier of public and European capital and as a partner of the financial system, and not as a competitor, argues Raluca Nicolescu, acting Director General of the IDB, in an interview with Energynomics. “In 2026, we move from building the institution to multiplying capital in the real economy,” says Raluca Nicolescu.
What is the role of a financial institution like the IDB for Romania? What were the performance indicators (KPIs) established for this year?
The role of a national development bank is not to replace commercial banks, but to intervene where there are market failures, risks that the private sector cannot fully assume, projects for which it is necessary to mobilize larger volumes of capital or which do not offer a return adjusted to the risk appetite of private financiers from the outset. The IDB must function as a multiplier of public and European capital and as a partner of the financial system, not as its competitor.
The Investment and Development Bank is the only development bank in Romania fully owned by the state, through the Ministry of Finance. Its mission is explicitly linked to facilitating access to finance for SMEs, financing infrastructure, attracting private capital, more efficient use of European funds and providing technical assistance.
For 2026, our main objective is to move from the institutional building stage, completed in 2023–2025, to the stage of integrating our financial instruments into the financing products of banks and non-banking financial institutions and thus contribute to increasing access to finance for a larger number of beneficiaries, SMEs or local authorities. Also, other priorities are to increase our capacity to build financing instruments that support the business environment in this context of permanent changes, investments, energy transition, competitiveness.
From the perspective of specific KPIs, in 2026 we prioritized the fulfillment of the PNRR milestones established for the bank: pillar-based assessment, agreement of European bodies on the capital increase and the extension of the IDB mandate, adjustment of the investment strategy with new intervention instruments supported by own funds or European funds.
But in the long term, the fundamental KPI for the IDB is the capacity to transform public capital into additional private investments, jobs, infrastructure and projects that increase Romania’s competitiveness.
What are the main financing directions pursued? What about the energy industry?
The IDB strategy has as main strategic objectives the financing and guaranteeing of SME investments, supporting public and regional infrastructure and the use of European funds. Promoting a climate-neutral economy and sustainable development is one of the main ways of action, being a transversal characteristic for all financial instruments and interventions of the bank. In the SME area, the guarantee instrument is one of the most important. Currently, the IDB has 21 guarantee agreements with financial intermediaries – 12 for SME portfolios and 9 for public investments, the financial partners with whom we have signed these agreements covering a significant proportion of the bank’s assets. For SMEs, the IDB guarantee can cover in certain situations up to 80% of the loan for certain categories, such as start-ups, innovative companies, majority-owned women-owned companies or those that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. In the public sector, the directions include water and sanitation infrastructure, energy, energy efficiency, transport, health, education and local development. IDB direct lending for eligible projects can have values between 5 million and 150 million lei and more flexible maturity and collateral requirements than current practice in Romania. Energy is an important component of the strategy. We are interested in investments in renewable generation as well as energy infrastructure, energy efficiency, asset modernization. The current approval by the European Commission regarding the extension of the IDB mandate also opens up the possibility of our presence in projects that can contribute to making the system more flexible, including storage. An important element for 2026 is the Modernization Fund. IDB is strengthening its role as an institutional platform for the administration of financial instruments financed from this fund, with applicability in energy transition, distribution, energy efficiency, but also storage and projects with climate impact. The market justifies this orientation. Romania currently has a consistent pipeline of renewable energy projects. The challenge is to transform existing projects into effectively built and bankable investments and we believe that our role is to contribute to accelerating this process so that we have an energy system protected from external factors and crises.
What were the main sources attracted and what are the agreements concluded by the IDB to attract new funds?
The IDB model is built precisely to combine the bank’s own capital with European resources, public funds, guarantees and private capital.
An important example is the Regional Participation Fund for increasing the competitiveness of SMEs, for which the IDB signed the financing agreement with the Regional Development Agencies for North-East, South-East and Bucharest-Ilfov. The total allocation is 233.35 million euros, of which 174.72 million euros come from the European Regional Development Fund and 58.63 million euros represent co-financing from the state budget.
It is an interesting instrument because it is not a simple grant. We are talking about a very low-cost loan combined with a 40% rebate capital, granted if the investment is completed under the established conditions. The financing can reach 5 million euros per SME, and financial intermediaries contribute up to 30% of the financing.
An important element for 2026 is the Modernization Fund. IDB is strengthening its role as an institutional platform for the administration of financial instruments financed from this fund, with applicability in energy transition, distribution, energy efficiency, but also storage and projects with climate impact.
Another instrument developed this time together with the Ministry of Investments and European Projects and financed from the Just Transition Fund (FTJ) is dedicated to both SMEs and large companies developing investment projects in strategic technologies for Europe (STEP). The instrument combines a zero-interest loan financed from the FTJ, a bank loan with interest at market conditions and a grant that can reach up to 50% of the financing value, if the investment is completed according to the commitment.
In parallel, Romania, through the IDB, has expanded its contribution to the investment funds associated with the Three Seas Initiative, in addition to the Investment Fund initially dedicated to infrastructure, entering into another vehicle, this time dedicated to supporting capital funds with a regional presence that aim to develop companies in advanced or growing stages, oriented towards technology and innovation or active in traditional sectors. Also, in the spring, together with the European Investment Fund and four other development banks in the region, Romania, through the IDB, signed a memorandum of participation in the development of a “fund of funds” dedicated to strategic infrastructure.
Another important project that is very close to us is related to the creation of a fund of funds dedicated to supporting local capital funds, which in turn represent an essential engine in supporting and evolving Romanian entrepreneurship and its competitiveness. This structure, under the name RoBOOST, will be fi nanced from the recent capital increase of the IDB approved by the European Commission, will be developed together with the European Investment Fund and has the role of representing an anchor of predictability for the local market and a factor of trust capable of catalyzing the contribution of long-term private capital, accumulated by local pension funds and beyond. The plan is for this structure to be finalized by the end of the year and to begin to have a visible role during 2027. All these mechanisms have the same logic: public resources should not only be used for the direct financing of a project, but to participate in completing the financial architecture and ultimately to attract private, banking and institutional capital. Our direct lending product for the public sector can have a value between 5 million and 150 million lei, a maturity of up to 15 years and can be granted including syndication. The characteristics of direct lending are also reflected in the individual guarantee, which we grant for similar purposes, but in partnership with commercial banks. For SMEs, the IDB portfolio guarantee covers 70% of the financing, for loans with maturities between 12 months and 10 years, the maximum guaranteed amount being the equivalent in lei of 2 million euros per transaction. The financing can cover investments in tangible and intangible assets, as well as working capital associated with the development of the activity, being developed on a de minimis aid scheme. Starting with 2026, the strategic direction is to extend the instruments towards energy efficiency and towards SMEs that want to “green” their activity. Regarding the specific conditions for green energy projects, I would not talk about a single IRR or Capex level accepted by the IDB for all projects. Each project is analyzed according to its risk profile, cash flows, financing structure, sponsor quality, power sales contracts and the project’s ability to repay its debt. The guarantees and fi nancing structure are also calibrated according to the project’s characteristics.
How do you see the evolution of the green fi nance loan market?
In the coming years, green fi nance will grow faster than corporate lending as a whole. Not only because there are European decarbonization goals, which have been transposed locally, but because investments in energy efficiency, own production and flexibility have become economic investments, which reduce the costs and operational risk of companies.
The most active segments will remain photovoltaics, onshore wind, and energy storage and efficiency will gain importance. Storage will probably have the fastest percentage growth, because it solves some of the problems created by intermittent production and responds to the lessons of the recent past.
Energy efficiency will be, perhaps, the segment with the widest beneficiary base: public buildings, industrial companies, utility operators and SMEs. For the IDB, it is a natural direction, because the bank’s strategy foresees the expansion, from 2026, of instruments dedicated to energy efficiency and green investments of SMEs.
The market is also supported by a real investment intention: the analysis used in the IDB strategy shows that 66% of SMEs in Romania intended to invest in the next three years, above the EU average of 54%, with interest being particularly high in energy efficiency.
Regarding SMEs versus large players, I would not say that one of the segments is simply “more active”. Large investors are the ones who can develop renewable energy projects worth hundreds of millions of euros, while SMEs have a very high need for energy efficiency, own production, self-consumption and guarantee instruments. They are, in fact, two different markets, with different financing needs.
Our message is that there is capital for good projects.
The role of the IDB is to contribute to reducing the financing gap, to share the risk with the financial system and to transform public and European resources into the largest possible volume of private investment.
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The interview also appeared in the print edition of Energynomics Magazine, Q3 2026 issue.
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