The bank has put aside 809,500 lei (around EUR180,000) for severance payments in one of the most important staff restructuring in the local banking sector, as bankers had kept postponing such measures.
In addition to posting the biggest loss on the market in 2011, Volksbank continues to feel the negative effects of court cases brought against it by clients citing abusive clauses in the old loan contracts.
At the end of last year, the bank was involved in 2,638 litigations for consumer protection practices, 751 of which were irrevocably settled in favor of clients and for which provisions of RON21.6 billion (around EUR5 million) were set up. In 2011, there were 1,364 new court cases over the clause that allowed the bank to modify interest rates based on market conditions and over the so-called risk fee the bank charged.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)