The central bank’s Regulation 17 of 2012 stipulates commercial banks have to calculate company repayment capacity of foreign currency loans considering a potential severe depreciation of the national currency, similar to the terms applied to consumer credits.
The new regulation would limit SME access to hard currency loans by 25%, said Anca Balasu, head of Volksbank’s product management division.
“Companies in agriculture are the most affected ones, followed by recipients of European funds and small companies that cannot afford to negotiate loan contracts based on the leu/euro exchange,” Balasu told the Mediafax Talks about SMEs conference.
Unless companies prove they have natural or financial hedging mitigating currency exposure associated with foreign currency loans, they must support foreign currency shocks of 35.5% in euros, 52.6% in Swiss francs and of 40.9% in US dollars.
“The impact will be visible particularly on the short term and those who would want to have their financing lines extended will not be able to do so unless they have hedging to foreign currency risk or they buy derivatives,” Balasu said.