Rates for ROL loans down to less than 10%

Volksbank yesterday slashed interests for ROL-denominated loans to 9.5% per year, down 5.5 percentage points. The new level is applied to both real estate loans and consumer loans, with variable rates.

This is a first time in the Romanian banking system, namely interest rates for ROL-denominated credits going down below 10%.

The bank also cut the interest rates for euro-denominated real estate and car loans to 7% per year. Moreover, rates for long-term personal loans backed by a mortgage went down to 9.5% per annum. Volksbank offers interests ranging between 5.75% and 6% per year for ROL-denominated deposits.

a??As ROL interests have settled close to the level of 8% per year on the interbank market, we can afford to cut down interest rates to around 10% per annum. Should these conditions change, we will also revise our rates,a?? said Catalin Ionescu, deputy director of Volksbanka??s retail unit.

The National Bank maintains the interest rate paid for one-month deposits at 8% per year, while interests for government bonds, irrespective of their maturity, range between 7 and 8% per year.

Volksbank is thus positioned at the lower limit of the market, in line with its price leadership policy. The previous move had been made by Bancpost, which had already a??attackeda?? the market with interests of 10.9% per year for ROL, and 7.5% for euros, for real estate loans.

In the first quarter of the year, BRD-SocGen had reduced interests for ROL-denominated mortgages below the level of 12% per year, while Banca Transilvania offers mortgage financing with an interest of 12.5% per year. liviu.chiru@zf.ro