When Ionut Nedelea donates blood, he likes knowing he’s helping out a fellow Romanian in need. He also likes pocketing a little extra cash.
So a few times each year, Nedelea, a 46-year-old project manager, waits patiently in line for hours at a run-down facility in downtown Bucharest for a nurse to prick his arm. Later, he logs onto his brokerage account and uploads a blood-donor’s certificate to retrieve his financial reward: a chance to buy Romanian government bonds offering souped-up interest rates of over 7%. That’s a full percentage point above the going rate available to most retail investors.
