Clampdown of lending activities by the commercial banks was not entailed by the decline of top indebtedness level, the actual problem being the funding sources, said Nicolae Cinteza, director at BNR.
He added that, in the context of mistrust in the Romanian market, after the so-called “attack on the national currency” in October, when the interests climbed to 40% on the monetary market, the banks that had liquidity preferred to place their money abroad rather than borrowing to other local banks.
“The bankers’ concern is not the top indebtedness level. For loans in lei, the rollback of the top indebtedness level according to the new lending regulation does not exceed 4%, and for loans in euros, for clients with high incomes, it does not exceed 6%. The indebtedness level is not the issue, you can make it even 100%, but if you don’t have funding sources, you have nothing”, said the director of the Supervisory Division within the National Bank of Romania (BNR) , Nicolae Cinteza, at EU-COFILE seminar.
Translated by Camelia Oancea
