Another weak start of the year for retail loans

Retail lending, be it consumer or mortgage loans, has recorded another weak start of the year, with banks' promotional offers failing to attract clients.
Just as in previous months, leu-denominated loans continued to decline, with demand focused around foreign-currency loans.
Consumer loans posted a nearly 2% decline in January against December, with the overall volume falling to 63.1 billion lei (14.8 billion euros). Leu-denominated funding and foreign currency-denominated loans recorded similar rates of decline, close to 2%.
The decline of mortgage loans was less significant, of 0.2%, to 28.9 billion lei (6.8 billion euros). Driven by the "First Home" scheme, mortgage loans saw a 20% annual rise, while consumer loans remained stuck on a 12% annual rate of decline.
The beginning of the year was made more complicated for bankers by the enforcement of Law 288/2010, created based on the well-known Emergency Ordinance 50/2010, which forced them to revise the cost structure of retail loans. Under the circumstances, several players, including BCR, the biggest bank by assets, temporarily suspended the sale of certain lending products.