Banking and Finance

Overview

Reff & Associates is among the leading law firms in Romania, with a strong track record advising local and international financial institutions on complex, high‑value cross‑border  operations.

Our Banking and Finance lawyers act as trusted strategic advisors for institutional clients, from banks to digital asset services providers and financial market infrastructures, navigating their most demanding mandates – bringing deep expertise across the full spectrum of banking and finance law. Whether advising on prudential and supervisory requirements, structuring and negotiating financing documentation, or navigating a distressed situation where financial pressure and legal complexity converge simultaneously, we bring the same standard: clear, integrated and actionable legal advice, grounded in a thorough understanding of both the local and EU regulatory frameworks and the financial services environment.

What sets our practice apart is the depth of integration between legal expertise and the broader advisory capabilities of a global professional services firm. We understand that the most demanding mandates - regulatory, transactional or restructuring - rarely operate in a vacuum. Our integration with Deloitte's risk advisory, financial advisory and accounting teams is a working reality that consistently produces better outcomes for clients steering through high-complexity, high-stakes situations.

Banking and Financial Services Regulation and Compliance

Reff & Associates' Banking and Finance team is the legal partner of first resort for institutional clients navigating their most consequential regulatory mandates – combining deep technical expertise across prudential regulation, supervisory requirements and expectations, and compliance obligations with the commercial acuity and cross-sector insight of a global professional services firm. We deliver clear, integrated and actionable guidance in an increasingly complex and stringently regulated environment, at both national and EU level, covering among others the CRD and CRR, BRRD, DORA, PSD2, AML requirements, outsourcing/third party and ICT risk management obligations, as well as emerging regulatory developments impacting innovative financial services providers and technology-driven financial institutions.

And perhaps more than most, we understand that regulatory advice rarely exists in isolation – the most demanding client mandates require legal thinking that works fluently alongside risk advisory, finance, treasury, accounting and operational constraints. We are experienced in navigating complex, multi-stakeholder projects where the moving parts are many and the margin for error is not.

Our Banking and Finance clients range from banks, non‑banking financial institutions, payment services providers and electronic money providers, digital assets services providers, fintechs, financial market infrastructures, technology providers and up to regulators, but regular corporates as well, in wholesale and retail contexts, across multiple European jurisdictions.

Our regulatory work covers licensing and regulatory structuring, implementation of compliance and governance frameworks, advice on supervisory interactions, and support on regulatory changes affecting banking, payment services, and financial markets in general, as well as crisis management and recovery and resolution planning. Beyond purely regulatory mandates, we support institutional clients in structuring and optimizing their operating models - and work together with them on the design, regulatory positioning and go-to-market strategy for new financial services and products. Our team also advises on consumer credit and mortgage loans, as well as ESG in financial services.

Transactional Finance Services

Our Banking and Finance team advises across the full spectrum of finance transactions. Our experience spans bilateral and syndicated loan facilities, revolving credit facilities, acquisition and leveraged finance, and refinancing transactions – covering project finance, infrastructure finance, and energy and real estate lending, corporate and commercial finance, as well as structured lending, both domestic and cross-border.

We regularly advise acting for lenders - development finance institutions alongside commercial banks, borrowers, sponsors and financial investors on some of the most complex financing mandates in the Romanian and regional markets, and we understand the distinct structuring, security and intercreditor considerations that each financing context demands.

Across all mandates, our lawyers regularly draft, review and negotiate LMA-based and bespoke financing documentation, security packages and intercreditor arrangements, supporting clients from initial structuring through to signing and financial closing. We do not treat documentation as a back-end exercise — our involvement from the earliest structuring stages means that legal risk, regulatory positioning and commercial objectives are aligned well before a term sheet is finalized.

A significant part of our debt finance practice is built around loan portfolio and distressed debt transactions, where we provide buy-side and sell-side legal assistance on deals involving performing loans and non-performing loans, mixed secured and unsecured portfolios.

This is an area where precision in documentation, regulatory awareness and the ability to manage complex, multi-party processes simultaneously are not optional - and where our integration with Deloitte's risk advisory, financial advisory and accounting capabilities gives clients a genuinely differentiated offer.

Restructuring, Workout and Distressed Finance

As part of a fully integrated restructuring and insolvency practice, our Banking and Finance team operates at the point where financial pressure, legal complexity and commercial urgency converge - advising across the full spectrum of mandates, from early-stage loan restructuring negotiations through to work-out strategies, enforcement and recovery and to alternative solutions for distressed assets. We understand that in distressed situations, the quality and speed of legal judgment matters as much as technical precision.

Our work covers consensual restructurings of corporate, infrastructure and real estate finance transactions, protection and enforcement of secured lenders’ rights, and legal analysis of non‑performing loans and portfolio remediation strategies.

We are equally comfortable advising lenders seeking to protect their positions and borrowers or sponsors working through a viable alternative to formal insolvency – and that breadth of perspective consistently produces better outcomes for clients on both sides. Where situations escalate beyond consensual resolution, we work in close coordination with insolvency, litigation and enforcement specialists across complex, multi-party recovery scenarios.