Banks are aggressively promoting personal loans, which they grant on the spot to a customer with a valid ID, like they did during the boom days. The difference is that banks now check how much an applicant makes directly with the tax authority.
ING Bank, Raiffeisen Bank, BRD and Idea Bank are but some of the banks that have introduced loans, which only require an applicant to have a valid ID, so customers can get a loan in a single trip to the bank without having to produce proof of income issued by their employers or their tax return. Besides the easy access to loans in terms of necessary paperwork, banks also boast they offer quick approval, which may take as little as 15 minutes. Moreover, some banks raised the maximum amount one personal loan applicant can get, which may be as high as 120,000 lei (EUR27,000).
Banks try to stimulate consumer lending, which they see as a quick way to restore profits because of high margins. Their main target are the customers with salary accounts and those with high incomes, which give them some peace of mind given the problems banks had due to the high rate of default on this type of product during the crisis. Now banks can better manage the non-performing loan risks after having signed an agreement with the Tax Authority to allow them access to its database of customer income information.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)