One of the most affected markets by the financial crisis that whips into shape in the Romanian landscape is the loan brokerage industry. If the large companies managed to stay on the floating line, or cut costs by discharging rewards and practices for employees, namely Christmas parties or bonuses, for the medium and small companies, the future is not so bright.

Credit Services that administrates 11 offices across Romania had an ongoing development which lasted until one month and a half ago, when financial crisis unleashed, said the manager at one of the company’s Bucharest-based branches.

“In 2007 we had approximately 60 employees. We have reached a number of 80 employees across the country. Now we have 80% of the workforce left,” he said.

20% of the employees, who chose to look for a job at another company, were influenced by the sharp cut of the loan application approval by the banks. “Those who left left because of the crisis. Most of the brokers had low-income clients.” In order to be considered competitive, one of the most important conditions is to acquire the 50,000 euros target – value of credits approved by the banks.

Before the crisis outburst, an advisor was able to acquire his target if eight applications in average were approved. “In Bucharest, the average would have been somewhere around 10-11 application files. Nowadays, we focus more on mortgage loans,” Buruiana added. “At this point, the target is acquired by four advisors in average per agency. Practically, it would take one credit for consultant in order to acquire target, and most of the brokers who remained, do acquire their targets”, Buruiana added.

Translated by Camelia Oancea