In the first three months of 2015 alone, the stock of loans granted by NBFIs shrank by the equivalent of nearly RON200 million, according to central bank data.
The stock of loans declined both on the retail and corporate sides. On the retail segment, NBFIs had loans worth RON5 billion end-March, down 14% against the same period of 2014. The balance of loans granted to companies saw a steeper decline, from RON16 billion to in March 2014 to RON13 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2015.
The loan decline comes as NBFIs, just like banks, are carrying out a cleanup process of non-performing loans (NPLs). The bad loan ratio on the NBFIs segment stood at 22% at the end of 2014, compared to an average of 14% in the banking system.
End-2014, nearly 170 NBFIs registered in the general registry operated on the Romanian market.