Bankers cut interests on deposits, but forget to cheapen loans

Increasingly more banks are starting to adjust their deposit interest rates, but the cheapening of credits is yet to be seen, with bankers using this gap, as usual, to cover some of their costs at the expense of their clients. For a 10-year personal loan secured with a 50,000-RON mortgage, most banks charge annual effective interest rates of over 16.5%, which can go to 24% a year, while interest rates on RON deposits tend to fall towards the 12% mark. For a similar credit in euros, most banks operate effective annual interests of over 10%, which can reach as much as 13-14% a year, whilst interest rates on euro deposits have been cut for several months now to less than 6%. Bankers say margins have been significantly cut on the corporate segment, and barely cover expenses related to granting and managing a loan, but this is fully compensated by the interest rate margins operated for retail loans. Having solved liquidity problems on the interbank market, big banks can now afford to pay smaller interest rates on client deposits, but put off making loans cheaper.