January, third month of decline for consumer loans

Banks have almost entirely dropped the granting of unsecured consumer loans. At this time, the population can contract only mortgage-backed loans, show data published by the NBR (National Bank of Romania) for January. The overall volume of consumer credits saw a third consecutive decline in January, to 75.99 million RON (20.65 million euros). The first month of the year saw only mortgage-backed loans granted, with their volume climbing to 22.5 million RON (around 6 million euros). Banks have seen a major contraction in lending since the autumn. The increasingly difficult access to funding came on top of the new indebtedness level norms implemented by the NBR. Banks became more prudent and changed their policy drastically, towards attracting deposits. The currency structure reveals that 60% of the loans were granted in foreign currency, as opposed to 54% in January 2008. "The possibility that the depreciation of the exchange rate should have an impact on credits remains limited. The bulk of credits, over 70% are linked to the EURIBOR reference rate, and two thirds of these credits have been granted starting with the second half of 2006. Meanwhile, EURIBOR fell 55%, while the exchange rate depreciated 23%," says Claudiu Cercel, deputy general manager of the BRD bank.