Raiffeisen: Demand still the problem with lending

Clients' lack of confidence in the economy, on the one hand, and the low incomes and real estate uncertainties, on the other, are the main hurdles in the way of loan sales picking up, maintains Radu Topliceanu, a retail executive with Raiffeisen Bank.

He says the bank has the same loan application approval rate as before the crisis, with the monthly amount of granted loans now at the level of 2006 and half the 2008 level.
"The problem is not approval, but demand," stated Topliceanu, 41.
He maintains that at present Raiffeisen has almost one million retail loans in its portfolio, considering there are less than 8 million loans underway on the entire market.
"We're ending the year (2010 i.e.) with 330m euros in retail loan sales. It's a good output". The stronger trend of sales in the last months of the year gives him reason for moderate optimism.
"We'll see the volume go up, but at a one-digit rate," the banker says.