The four million clients with outstanding loans are held captivewith the high early repayment fees and thus forced to pay very highinterests, which banks used to cover their own costs and offset theloses from bad loans sold in the past. This is the conclusionreached by the four businessmen invited to the ZF Expert debate,which was not attended by precisely those involved - bankers andregulatory authorities.
The businessmen see the new regulations on loans for consumersintroduced by Emergency Ordinance 50/2010 - eliminating the earlyrepayment fee for variable rate loans, as well as connectinginterests to transparent indicators, as something positive, becausethey indirectly feel the pressure put by banks on consumers. Loaninstalment 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 newclients: charge high interests from the old ones. Conveying allthose problems to your client is unacceptable," says Dan Şucu,owner of furniture manufacturer Mobexpert. He believes all playersin the economy should share the burden of the crisis, whichincludes price cuts, yet banks increased their rates especially forconsumers in 2009.
"Banks need to protect themselves because they have toxic assets.There are billions of euros in loans granted by major banks thatare non-performing. They based their business on trust even whengranting very high loans in the past years," George Copos, whocontrols Ana Holding, in turn said.
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