Abstract. This paper shows the impact of the payment moratoria on the Romanian banking system in the first months after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first part, which presents the synthesis of specialized literature on moratoria, it is described how the pandemic affected the population and the authorities, as well as the banking prudential regulatory measures introduced to reduce the economic effects that threatened the very financial stability of the state. The work continues, in the second part, with a presentation of the data regarding the results of the application of this measure and the impact on the banking sector in Romania. The results suggest that the moratorium tends to be used by companies that were already struggling to meet their obligations to creditors, which led to an increase in the rate of non-performing loans after the grace period expired. They also show that such measures are not viewed with good eyes by the banking sector, as they increase the uncertainty weighing on it.

Keywords: payment moratoria, Covid-19, non-performing exposures, forborne exposures.