Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), the largest bank in the Romanian banking system, announced this Monday that it had reduced interest rates on ROL-denominated deposits by one percentage point.
The decision comes only ten days from its last downwards adjustment by one percentage point.
BCR rates for ROL deposits now range between 11%, for a one-month term, and 13%, for 18-month deposits. For one-year deposits, BCR pays 12.5% per year.
BCR's announcement came shortly after publication of the decision by BRD-SocGen, the second largest bank on the market, to reduce its rates for ROL deposits. BRD's rates now vary between 11% and 11.75%, depending on the term of the deposit.
The bank offers an extra 0.25% on deposits larger than 25 million ROL. These moves leave Raiffeisen, the third largest bank in the system, with the highest interest rates for ROL of between 12 and 12.5% per annum.
This week will also see Bancpost, another important player on the retail sector, cutting its rates by around one percentage point.
The recent decisions on the market in favour of large interest rate cuts suggest that banks no longer need to attract funds from customers, since they have more cash than they can place. In fact, commercial banks began the drastic slashing of interest rates on ROL-denominated deposits after the central bank brought down the rate at which it purges the surplus ROL on the money market to an average of 9.32% per year - about seven percent below the level seen at the beginning of the year.
liviu.chiru@zf.ro
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