Source: MPF, NBR, NBR calculations  23  Figure 32. Distribution of companies with equity below the regulatory threshold in 2016 by year of establishment 25,000  no. of firms  20,000  15,000  10,000  5,000  2016  2015  2014  2013  2012  2011  2010  2009  2008  2007  2006  2005  2004  2003  2002  2001  2000  1999  1998  1997  1996  1995  1994  1993  1992  1991  1990  0  Source: NTRO, MPF, NBR 24  Figure 34. Share of overdue payments* generated by undercapitalised companies  Figure 33. Breakdown of overdue payments* across the economy by company ownership 80  lei bn.
The main risk factors to financial stability are: (i) the undercapitalisation of a large number of companies (276.4 thousand firms with net worth below the required threshold, out of which 268.5 thousand firms with negative equity), induced particularly by losses (217.3 thousand firms with total losses of lei 33 billion in 2016), as well as the high indebtedness level in certain sectors, (ii) the increase in past due obligations to the government budget (up 5.9 percent in 2016), (iii) the low capacity to recover commercial claims, especially at the level of micro-enterprises, (iv) corroborated by the large number of firms in credit institutions’ portfolio which have not gone through a full business cycle, (v) the return of insolvency to an upward trend in terms of both the number of newly-insolvent firms (6.1 thousand firms in the first eight months of the year) and the volume of non-performing loans generated in the banking sector (the volume of non-performing loans generated by the companies undergoing insolvency proceedings increased by about one third to lei 1 billion) and (vi) the rise in overdue payments of the government budget to the real sector (up 9 percent in the period from September 2016 to September 2017 to lei 223.1 million). In a broader perspective, the weak payment discipline economy-wide has highlighted structural vulnerabilities in the balance sheets of companies (Figures 31-34). It is worth noting that the poor payment discipline economy-wide is not a new risk, but a recurrent vulnerability in Romania’s economy.