BCR is the third lending institution whose retail lending norms should be approved by the National Bank soon, banking sources told ZF. The biggest bank on the market plans to segment its loan offering depending on customers' incomes and creditworthiness, accepting advance payments ranging between 0 and 20% in the case of mortgages and an indebtedness degree of 50% of a customer's income at the highest.
BRD, which received the central bank's approval last Friday, is readying to start selling zero advance loans tomorrow, with an indebtedness degree of as high as 70%. The rest of the banks are still waiting for reactions from the NBR or are still working on the changes and additional information required after the first norm draft were presented.
Raiffeisen Bank, the third leading bank on the market sent the second version of its norms to the NBR yesterday, while Bancpost continues talks after having received a series of comments from the central bank. The members of the Managing Board of the Romanian Banking Association (ARB) on Tuesday had a meeting with NBR first deputy governor Florin Georgescu to present to him the list of requests ARB General Meeting of Shareholders approved last Friday for the clarification and speeding up of the norm validation process.
The NBR official told bankers some technical meetings could be organised between the representatives of the central bank and of commercial banks with a view to sorting out the problems related to the drafting of the norms.
Steven van Groningen, chairman with Raiffeisen Bank and deputy chairman with ARB, retains his pessimism on the outcome of the recent round of discussions with the NBR. Weary of NBR procedures, some banks would rather continue releasing loans in line with the old standard norms that are valid for the entire banking system, than keep on reviewing the documents requested by the central bank, as they feel that instead of getting closer to securing the approval they are actually getting farther from it.
Alpha Bank has been enjoying the status of "the first and only lending institution with new lending norms" for two weeks, with BRD to join it today. Implicitly, the two banks have a considerable competitive edge to the other banks still awaiting NBR's approval, the more so as BRD is the second biggest bank on the market, with a strong sales force in retail.
NBR governor Mugur Isarescu prefers looking at things exactly from the point of view of the "laureates" that did their homework in time in time and managed to pass the test of the norms. On the other hand, on the very day BRD received NBR's approval, Isarescu stated he knew "precisely" other banks' norms would be "shortly" approved.
Lending norm validation
BCR is the third lending institution likely to receive the green light on its new retail lending norms from the NBR
Alpha Bank has received the status of the first and only lending institution with new lending norms two weeks ago
BRD is to join Alpha Bank today
Weary of NBR procedures, some banks would rather continue releasing loans in line with the old standard norms than keep on reviewing the documents requested by the central bank
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