The National Bank of Romania Board on Wednesday endorsed the norms regarding the minimal lending conditions for the population.
"In the case of consumer lending, for the acquisition of goods, a guarantor can be requested, besides the 25% down payment. Only the obligation of down payment was originally stipulated, but now we have down payment, personal guarantees, a guarantor. We have also kept the condition requiring that the credit instalment plus interest rate should account for at most 30% of the loan applicant's net income," Petre Tulin, head of the National Bank's Regulation and Authorisation Division told Mediafax news agency.
According to Tulin, the credit for personal needs, which is included under the consumer lending category, also brings new elements: banks can accept real guarantees, to fully cover the value of the requested loan.
"If there are real guarantees, there is practically no need for a guarantor. We are mainly talking about highly liquid assets, deposits, specific money market instruments, but we will not rule out a mortgage, for instance," Tulin stated.
The National Bank has accepted one change from the original version, referring to the overdraft facility, which was extended up to three times the loan applicant's net monthly income. The previous condition had capped the overdraft at twice the monthly income.
As for the mortgage loans, there are no significant changes. "The credit instalment plus interest rate must not exceed 35% of the net income of the loan applicant and his family. In fact, this measure is better tailored to the stipulations of the Labour Code," Petre Tulin added.
According to the National Bank of Romania official, these are minimal prudential norms, which do not override the banks' internal lending terms and which were endorsed as a reaction to the soaring number of loans to natural persons this year.
"We are merely raising the bar to a certain level, whereas the banks, with their internal norms, can operate with more criteria and indicators aimed to assess whether the loan applicant is bona fide," Petre Tulin stated.
razvan.voican@zf.ro
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