Small interbank interests are not passed on to clients

Interest rates on the monetary market have remained at an all-time low for over a month, under pressure from the RON not purged by the NBR, but banks are in no hurry to pass this on to their clients. Subsequently, since the beginning of the year, banks have neither announced plans to cut the price of the loans in RON, nor indicated any significant drops in interest on deposits. Since the beginning of December, the NBR only partly attracted excess bank liquidities, and, under the circumstances, interest on short-term maturities on the market sank from 8%-9% a year at the beginning of December, to the present level of 0.5%-2% a year. Interest rates for the one-month maturity, dropped on the monetary market from 8.4%-8.9% a year at the beginning of December, to a minimum 3.4%-6.5% a year halfway through January. Only a few banks have introduced modifications on interest paid to their clients, but they were not significant at all. Since the beginning of the year, Alpha Bank, HVB-Tiriac Bank, Piraeus Bank and ProCredit Bank have announced drops in interests.