Banks keep clients captive with high interest loans, businesspeople say

The four million clients with outstanding loans are held captive with the high early repayment fees and thus forced to pay very high interests, which banks used to cover their own costs and offset the loses from bad loans sold in the past. This is the conclusion reached by the four businessmen invited to the ZF Expert debate, which was not attended by precisely those involved - bankers and regulatory authorities.
The businessmen see the new regulations on loans for consumers introduced by Emergency Ordinance 50/2010 - eliminating the early repayment fee for variable rate loans, as well as connecting interests to transparent indicators, as something positive, because they indirectly feel the pressure put by banks on consumers. Loan instalment payment is the main concern of most of those indebted, and the little money left thereafter goes to consumption.
"Banks found the solution when they saw they no longer have new clients: charge high interests from the old ones. Conveying all those problems to your client is unacceptable," says Dan Şucu, owner of furniture manufacturer Mobexpert. He believes all players in the economy should share the burden of the crisis, which includes price cuts, yet banks increased their rates especially for consumers in 2009.
"Banks need to protect themselves because they have toxic assets. There are billions of euros in loans granted by major banks that are non-performing. They based their business on trust even when granting very high loans in the past years," George Copos, who controls Ana Holding, in turn said.