Carpatica in no rush to cut interest

Most banks are not rushing to reduce interest on credit or deposits in the wake of the decision by the National Bank to reduce the intervention interest rate by 0.5%.

Chairman of Carpatica, Nicolaie Hoanta, stated the bank would not cut interest on loans in the near future, thus joining other bankers in believing that the NBR move to reduce the interest rate signals a long-term trend.

“We will only embrace an overall loan interest reduction policy after the NBR cuts interest by 1.5-2 percentage points,” he stated.

The chairman also maintained that the impact of the gradual reductions the National Bank wants to impose would be felt in early autumn by banking customers. Moreover, Hoanta says that deposit interest rates will be the first to go down, followed only later by loan interest, so that the bank might be able to keep up a certain margin between the interest distributed and the interest collected.

Carpatica is not such an important player on the consumer credit and mortgage market, which accounts for a mere 5% of the bank’s credit portfolio. “I think consumer credit and mortgages are very dangerous for banks, considering the instability of people’s incomes and jobs,” Hoanta stated.

Wednesday was Carpatica’s first trading day on the Bucharest Stock Exchange after having transferred from the RASDAQ. Its chairman officially opened the trading session. It started at 9,500 ROL and fell slightly to 8,700 ROL at close. The decline continued yesterday, with Carpatica closing at 8,200 ROL, down 5.7% from the previous day.

This year, Carpatica plans to issue bonds with an as-yet unspecified value, but which might exceed 500 billion ROL.

Moreover, the chairman says that by 2007 the bank intends to carry out at least one capital increase through subscription, after the capital increase worth 250 billion ROL concluded at the beginning of this year.

By 2007, the bank also hopes to reach a market share of 1.5% of the Romanian banking system, as compared to 0.7% at present.

The largest stake in Carpatica is held by Ilie Carabulea, owner of Atlassib transportation company, controlling 35.75% of the capital. The company’s other stakeholders are Aurel Albu with 9.96%, Corneliu Tanase with 9.82%, Lucio Olivo with 7.86%, Euroconf with 6.77% and Gian Antonio Olivo with 6.52%.
vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro