Romanian Banks Like Their Variable Interest Rates, Particularly Going Up

The National Agency for the Protection of the Consumer asked Romanian commercial banks to provide retail loans at fix interest rates and commissions, and allow the consumers time to study their loan contracts

The National Agency for the Protection of the Consumer, or ANPC, asked Romanian commercial banks to provide retail loans at fix interest rates and commissions, and allow the consumers time to study their loan contracts.
Banks should not change the contracts providing the loans to move up interest rates and commissions agreed upon, while the contract is ongoing, said the ANPC. Also, the banks should allow consumers at least ten days to study their loan contracts, prior to signing them, ANPC said.
The Agency received 400 complaints this year from consumers pointing out the business practice of Romanian commercial banks.
The president of the Romanian Association of Banks Radu Gratian said the banks are currently communicating with the ANPC, which also pointed out that the contracts commercial banks seal do not comply with the European Union legislation particularly in the matter of interest rates and commissions.
However, Ghetea says that while commissions should stay at a fix rate, not the same should happen to interest rates, which should very in time, particularly for the long-term loans.
“In Romania there are in use two ways of calculating a variable interest rate: one is guided by the EURIBOR and ROBOR  interest rates, and the other by the value of the first interest rates paid, to which a risk margin is added. We recommend the first method of calculus as more advantageous, as the interest rate will take into account the market movement,” said Ghetea.
Banks operators estimate that the cost of loans will go up this year, but hope it will go down again, if the 2008 inflation target of 6%-6.5% will be met, said Razvan Munteanu, Raiffeisen Bank vice president for the retail market.
Munteanu said all loans, be they in the local currency or in hard currency carry risks: “The hard currency denominated loans are vulnerable to the exchange rate leu-Euro, while the leu denominated loans are vulnerable to interest rates hikes,” he added.
While Alpha Bank president Sergiu Oprescu said the international financial crisis benefited the Romanian banking system, as it mitigated the risk of overheating in the market of mortgages. “Had we not had this crisis, the banks would have overstepped their loan capacity in the next year and a half and we would have probably reached a stage where 100% of investments would have been covered by mortgage loans,” said Oprescu. But the financial market upheavals in Europe and the United States dampened the enthusiasm of Romanian financial institutions, added he.