For mortgage loans in euro, the bank decided to cut the required down payment to 35% from 43%.
The new lending conditions apply to loans lower than EUR150,000, attached to life insurance, which are granted for the purchase of a housing unit. Properties must be located in towns with more than 15,000 inhabitants and a dynamic real estate market.
Bancpost was among the first banks to raise the minimum down payment on mortgage loans, but the measure was taken before the enforcement of the debt discharge law.
The law on debt discharge came into force on May 13, 2016 after the bill was signed into law by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and published in the Official Gazette. The law allows retail mortgage borrowers to return real estate collateral to banks in exchange for writing off their loans.