New NBR regulations shake credit broker market

The restrictions generated by the new NBR regulations will wipe out more than half of the credit brokers from the market. To survive, small players will have to merge or sell their businesses, say market players. The new norms stipulate that borrowers need to “make sure credit brokers” apply “the same procedures as lenders”. “Lenders’ decision to continue their business relationship” with brokers will be based on an analysis of the portfolio of customers brought by intermediaries, compared to their own portfolios. Hence, it is not only disbursed volumes that will make a criterion along which the credit broker market will be split, but portfolio quality as well, says Roxana Gavrila, marketing and communication manager with Credit Team brokerage. “Some brokers will probably disappear. The surviving ones will curtail their activities for some time and we may witness mergers or acquisitions on the market,” said Liviu Andrei, a CEO with DBSol Consulting banking intermediation firm. The banking intermediation market is in its early stages in Romania, with a volume of just 5% of retail loans released by banks having been intermediated last year.