The government attaches great importance to the penalty feature of the credit system, which allows it to discriminate between efficient enterprises that find themselves in temporary difficulties and enterprises that are poorly managed. Enterprises that require operating funds in excess of those prescribed by officially determined norms or are unable to repay credits on time must pay progressively higher interest rates. Excess and overdue credits carry an interest rate of up to 10 percent for the first three months and up to 12 percent for the next three months. Enterprises in the second stage are subject to a searching examination by a committee of experts and may be denied further credits. Information is lacking on the procedures followed in the case of enterprises that would be declared bankrupt in a Western economy. According to a National Bank official, the new credit regulations were to be rigorously applied in order to combat a rising trend in the volume of overdue credits that became apparent in the first half of 1970. The credit and interest policies were to be applied in a manner that would protect the economy from the bad effects of mismanagement and that would place the onus only on poorly run enterprises. This task was said to demand a high level of competence from those called upon to resolve the difficult problems of the enterprises. CURRENCY The currency unit of the country is the leu (plural, lei), divided into 100 bani. It is nonconvertible and usable only within the country. The leu is officially defined to contain 148.112 milligrams of fine gold, so that 5.53 lei are equivalent to US$1. This basic rate of exchange became effective on December 23, 1971, in the wake of the agreement reached by the United States with other major Western trading nations to devalue the American dollar; before that date the rate was 6 lei per US$1. The basic rate is used in foreign trade accounting and is also applicable to nonresident accounts created by a transfer of foreign currencies into Romania. A wide range of official noncommercial or tourist exchange rates is in effect for residents of other communist countries. These rates vary from about one-third to more than double the basic rate. Tourist rates for noncommunist country currencies embody a bonus of 189 percent over the basic rate, making 16 lei equivalent to US$1. In addition to the official exchange rates there are at least thirty-seven semiofficial rates resulting from seven multilateral trade and payments agreements with members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) and thirty bilateral agreements with other communist and noncommunist states.