Bankers accelerated loan portfolio cleanup moves particularly in the counties where the weight of past due payments in overall released loans topped the average. Nationwide, the average of outstanding loan installments stood at 13.5% in July, down 1% on the month.
July brought the first clearer signal of decline in loan overdue installments, which came amid BNR’s decision to allow bankers to get rid of completely provisioned bad loans.
Also, July also saw the first significant deals involving NPLs.
The steepest decline in overdue loan payments was registered in Mures, of 17%, to 475 million lei in July on the month. The weight of overdue installments in released loans reached 11.5% in Mures, down 2%.
In Neamt, bankers’ loan portfolios are RON62 million cleaner than in June, after overdue payments cumulated RON331 million in July, down 16% in a single month. Outstanding sums in July accounted for almost 17% in total loans released in Neamt county, above the national 13.5% average.
Bucharest saw a fast decline in past due payments. In late July, Bucharest residents had overdue loan installments worth RON9.9 billion, EUR1.4 billion less than in June. Nevertheless, Bucharest leads by far the ranking of counties with the biggest volume of outstanding loan payments, as it also registers the highest loan volume.
Valcea and Suceava are also among the counties where overdue loan installments fell rapidly, being 10% lower in July against the previous month.
A higher level of past due payments was reached only in Salaj county. Caras-Severin, Dambovita and Giurgiu were among the counties with the slowest declines in late payments.
Companies and individuals had overdue installments for banking loans worth RON29 billion (EUR6.6 billion) in late July, down RON3.5 billion from the same period of last year, according to BNR data.
However, overdue installment pressures are still high in the context where banks’ balance sheets have narrowed down constantly and lending is not giving any signs of a rebound.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)