National Bank of Romania together with the heads of the commercial banks will reexamine the modification of the recently-enforced lending conditions for population, as the data available at the moment are not relevant, NBR’s first vice governor, Florin Georgescu, said earlier today.
“We will reexamine in January, based on December statistics, the possibility of adjusting the lending conditions for natural persons, in order to secure the flexibility and adjustment to the market trend”, said Florin Georgescu.
According to him, the slowdown of credit’s growth pace was not determined by the new lending conditions for population, but by the shrunk liquidity of the banks in Romania, in the context of global crisis.
“The first permissions granted to banks on the new lending regulations were received as of October 15-18, 2008, so the banks were still able to grant loans according to old regulations. The effect of the modified regulation for lending will be noticeable no sooner than November”, said Georgescu at EU-COFILE seminar.
He added that then slowdown of the credit growth pace is strictly linked to the liquidity level in the banking system.
The annual growth pace of loans granted to population and companies fell sharply in October, to 44.8% from 50.5% in the previous month, due to the major decline of loans in foreign currency, according to statistics provided by central bank.
The annual growth pace of loans in foreign currency granted to population slowed down in October, to 74.4% from 86.7% a month ago. In September, loans in foreign currency rose 9.4% from August.
