Isarescu reiterated the solutions agreed on Thursday between the central bank, the Romanian Banking Association (ARB) and the banks whose portfolios include loans in Swiss francs.
The three parties agreed on several burden-sharing solutions, stressing that each case should be treated individually.
The measures include maintaining the monthly installment of loans in Swiss francs in local currency at December 2014 level, the conversion into local currency and/or granting a discount or a temporary interest cut. The solutions should focus on persons with payment difficulties and should not impact the stability of the financial-banking system.
Isarescu said ARB will provide further details on the solutions of each bank.
Central bank governor said that an administrative measure would be counterproductive, and “against the law and would sound like a nationalization”.
“We don’t think we can adopt a general solution – and this is the message we will send to the Parliament – but multiple solutions, we are working on them,” Isarescu said, adding that loans in Swiss francs do not represent a risk as they have a low weight in the GDP and in the total loans.
Isarescu said earlier that converting Swiss franc loans into lei at the historical exchange rate would generate a loss of 5.7 billion lei (EUR1.3 billion), or 0.8% of GDP, for banks that granted such loans.
According to central bank data, currently there are around 75,000 debtors in Swiss francs, who were lured by the lower interest rates compared with most currencies.
The Swiss franc touched record highs on the Romanian market starting with January 15, after it gained nearly 30% against the euro following Swiss National Bank’s decision to scrap the minimum exchange rate ceiling against the euro.