Bankers are trying to persuade competitors' customers with agood repayment history to refinance their debts, offering themlower interests or waiving loan fees, amid complaints about ashortage of demand for new loans. In order to revive their lendingbusiness, banks are even willing to take over several loans fromthe same debtor and consolidate them or lend a larger amount tocustomers than needed for the refinancing.
The first offers for credit refinancing emerged in the summeramid the application of Ordinance 50, which sets out moretransparent lending terms, with its main provision being theelimination of the early repayment fee, a major obstacle forcustomers seeking to refinance their loans.
"The early repayment fee was a rather significant hurdle. In theirbid to find good customers, banks can come with attractive interestrates. The elimination of other types of fees was only a matter ofcompetition, and as competition started to heat up, they started togo down," comments financial analyst Dragoş Cabat. Competition onthis segment has intensified in the past few months, with nearlyall big and medium-sized players coming up with refinancingproducts. Piraeus Bank is the latest bank to come up with arefinancing loan in RON and in euros, with interest rate margins of4.75% above Robor and 5.9% above Euribor, without an originationfee provided that the loan does not exceed the amount necessary forthe refinancing.
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