The lending growth is fuelled solely by consumer and mortgage loans, while corporate loans still fluctuate. Retail loans stood at RON3.2 billion last month, double as much as in June 2013.
“Three things helped leu lending up: the discontinuation of the euro-denominated First Home loans, the lower down payment for mortgage loans and the interest decline,” says Liviu Andrei, chief executive of loan broker Allliance Finance.
New retail loans even beat repayments and written-off loans. Therefore the stock of retail loans rose by about one billion lei last month for each of the two main products of the segment (consumer and mortgage) in June, a pace unattained since the boom days of 2007-2008.
On the other hand, new corporate loans fell by about RON500 million in June to almost RON2 billion compared with the previous month. However, banks say the first signs of a rebound in corporate demand are showing, as well, including demand for investment loans.
Unlike the boom days of 2007-2008, banks are granting a very low volume of euro-denominated loans, so aggregate loan sales are lower than they were back then. They are 25% higher than last year, though.
Euro loans granted in June stood at EUR280 million and most of them were corporate loans (EUR255 million).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)