The number of credit reports issued by the Credit Bureau at the request of banks looking into potential customers fell 18% in September compared to the previous month, to 386,400. At the same time, the number of queries was almost 21% below the monthly average of the last six months.
Demand for new loans had spectacularly rebound in the spring after being frozen for over two years. The number of queries about potential clients stood at 569,000 in March, the same as the monthly levels before the crisis. September is the first month after the rebound when the number of queries dropped below 400,000.
The decline in demand made an impact on the banks’ portfolios, as well, and the value of loans granted fell 4% compared to the end of August, to 144 billion lei (EUR33.5 billion) because new loans were lower than repayments.
“The amounts granted dropped slightly at the beginning of the year and then grew for five months. Then dropped again in September,” says Serban Epure, general manager of the Credit Bureau.
Still the number of loan applications was 14% higher in September compared to the same month last year.
The Credit Bureau can also issue reports on existing customers at the request of banks, which have been monitoring their loan portfolios more closely during the crisis. Over 5.7 million reports have been issued since the beginning of the year, 1.8 million of them requested for portfolio monitoring purposes. September saw a surge in the number of monitoring reports, which stood at 418,000, almost three times more than in August.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)