Retail lending, be it consumer or mortgage loans, hasrecorded another weak start of the year, with banks' promotionaloffers failing to attract clients.
Just as in previous months, leu-denominated loans continued todecline, with demand focused around foreign-currency loans.
Consumer loans posted a nearly 2% decline in January againstDecember, with the overall volume falling to 63.1 billion lei (14.8billion euros). Leu-denominated funding and foreigncurrency-denominated loans recorded similar rates of decline, closeto 2%.
The decline of mortgage loans was less significant, of 0.2%, to28.9 billion lei (6.8 billion euros). Driven by the "First Home"scheme, mortgage loans saw a 20% annual rise, while consumer loansremained stuck on a 12% annual rate of decline.
The beginning of the year was made more complicated for bankers bythe enforcement of Law 288/2010, created based on the well-knownEmergency Ordinance 50/2010, which forced them to revise the coststructure of retail loans. Under the circumstances, severalplayers, including BCR, the biggest bank by assets, temporarilysuspended the sale of certain lending products.
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