Isărescu: Network costs will be overwhelming unless banks finance companies and SMEs

Banks need to attach more importance to the corporate sector and to SMEs, because if they continue to rely only on lending to the population, they will not be able to grow and to cover the overwhelming costs of territorial networks, according to NBR (National Bank of Romania) governor Mugur Isărescu.
"Lending to the population cannot see a very fast rise anymore. A commercial bank that still largely relies on loans granted to the population, as it has in the past, will face a very tough reality check. In none of the scenarios will lending to the population see a very fast rise anymore. If banks will rely only on that, they will not be able to grow. They will not be able to justify their networks. At a certain point the costs of keeping a big network going will become overwhelming and they will not be able to cover them."
The volume of private loans granted by banks fell by 3% last year in real terms, but climbed 4.7% in nominal terms, to 209.3 billion RON.
Big banks refrained from makings significant network and personnel cuts, with the words "restructuring" and "layoffs" not often to be found in connection to the banking industry after two years of crisis.