Highest rate of past due loans: 19% in Bihor county
Bank clients in poorly developed counties or where debtors are overindebted are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their loan instalments, with overdue amounts doubling or even tripling since the beginning of the year in some counties, now accounting for more than 10% of the overall volume of loans.
In Bihor, overdue instalments account for as much as 19.3% of
the overall volume of loans granted to the population and to
companies in the sector - 6.2 billion RON. Bankers say the main
reason for the boom of late payments in the county is customer
overindebtedness, with many customers taking out loans from two or
more banks during the lending boom.
In other counties, customers started to be late with bank
instalments because of the fast rise of unemployment, with the
areas being generally dependent on industries significantly hurt by
the crisis. For instance, in GalaĊ£i county late instalments amount
to 12.2% of the overall volume of loans, with the unemployment rate
being nearly 10% compared with the national average of 7.1%.
Companies in the county are polarised around the steel plant and
the shipyard, two industries that saw significant declines amid the
crisis.