Bankers do not expect to have clients for loans any time soon

22 aug 2010 Autor: Ciprian Botea

Bankers expect loan demand from individuals to be weaker in the coming period against previous months, after the upbeat expectations they had in the past have been overturned by reality, shows an NBR survey.
Instead, lending tightening is likely to come to a halt shortly after the phenomenon lost momentum in the third quarter.
Retail loan demand further contracted in the second quarter, though bankers previously anticipated lending to pick up starting April, the NBR survey reveals.
The survey included the top ten domestic banks in terms of lending.
Banks in their turn did not relax loan granting conditions, either, with around 5% of respondents even indicating slightly tighter retail lending conditions.
Central Credit Register data show the number of individuals applying for a loan in the first half of the year varied between 80,000 and 136,000 per month, 8-9 times lower on average than in the lending boom period.
Instead, on the corporate segment, bankers say loan demand rose in the second quarter.