Faced with falling sales of new loans, bankers are maintainingthe pressure on current clients and trying to generate revenuesthat should cover their bad loan charges by applying interestmargins that are 2.5% higher than before the crisis. The spreadbetween average interest rates for RON-denominated retail loans anddeposits underway in late September reached 8.12%, with the profitmargin being thus one percentage point above the level of thesimilar period of 2009, despite a slight drop in August andSeptember. By comparison, in September 2008, the interest margin onthe retail segment stood at 5.6%.
"Banks are trying to offset bad loan costs with a secure income.For the time being, they are able to keep margins for current loansup as there is not enough competition on the market and clientscannot too easily get refinancing from other banks. Once clientswill be able to more easily move from one bank to another, marginswill also start decreasing," comments Dragoş Cabat, managingpartner with Financial Views.
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