Consumer loans continued to fall in April, reaching 61 billion lei (EUR15 billion), despite higher demand in the past few months and although bankers became more aggressive in their sales campaigns.
Bankers explain, however, that the amounts lent are lower, with people having less money to pay installments after the wage cuts and last year’s VAT hike.
Unsecured loans declined by 0.5% against March and by 14% against the similar period of last year, according to data from the central bank, or BNR. The rate of decline, however, was slower than in the first three months of 2011.
For the time being, bankers make do by taking clients away from competition, to whom they hope to sell an additional amount to that necessary to settle their old debts.
“More clients are taking out loans compared with last year, but a big part of demand is for refinancing. Most clients who refinance their loans also borrow additional amounts, although they are not significant,” explains Anca Bidian, CEO of credit broker Kiwi Finance.
Demand for retail loans has gone up in the past three months thanks to the promotional offers launched in spring, especially by big players, with the number of applicants climbing to nearly 570,000 in March, according to data from the Credit Bureau. This is the highest level recorded since the autumn of 2008, before bankers froze lending.
The decline recorded in the volume of consumer loans in April was exclusively driven by foreign-currency loans, while new leu-denominated loans went up by RON130 million against the previous month, to RON25.9 billion at the end of April.
(EUR1=RON4.1208)