Banks have yet to cut interest rates on loans, although liquidity is there

Monetary market interest rates have fallen by as much as four percentage points lately, but banks are in no rush to reduce credit interest rates. The decline in euro reference rates – EURIBOR – is not reflected in a cheapening of credits on the Romanian market, either, although the level of Romania’s risk premium – mirrored by the CDS – credit default swap – has gone down almost three percentage points in the last month. Moreover, some of the large banks even have a liquidity surplus, but prefer to buy government bonds rather than take on the risk of resuming lending. After February and March saw some bankers pay deposit interest rates of 15-16% for RON and 6.5-7.5% for euros, now they keep credit interests high, as well, in order to preserve their margins. “The liquidity premium stays high across the market, which puts more pressure on credit interest rates. The market could ask for even lower interest rates in RON in order to boost lending (…),” says Nicolae Chidesciuc, senior economist of ING Bank.