Highest rate of past due loans: 19% in Bihor county

Bank clients in poorly developed counties or where debtors are overindebted are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their loan instalments, with overdue amounts doubling or even tripling since the beginning of the year in some counties, now accounting for more than 10% of the overall volume of loans.

In Bihor, overdue instalments account for as much as 19.3% of the overall volume of loans granted to the population and to companies in the sector – 6.2 billion RON. Bankers say the main reason for the boom of late payments in the county is customer overindebtedness, with many customers taking out loans from two or more banks during the lending boom.
In other counties, customers started to be late with bank instalments because of the fast rise of unemployment, with the areas being generally dependent on industries significantly hurt by the crisis. For instance, in Galați county late instalments amount to 12.2% of the overall volume of loans, with the unemployment rate being nearly 10% compared with the national average of 7.1%. Companies in the county are polarised around the steel plant and the shipyard, two industries that saw significant declines amid the crisis.