The ten largest banks entered a small-fee race at the start of the year, so that a loan file is not taxed with more than 400 euros, two-three times less than last year.
The change was brought about by the new consumer loan law that came into effect in early January, which no longer allows bankers to levy a percentage of the released loan as a tax for loan application processing, as they did in the past, but a fixed sum. There must be a single fee for a certain loan category.
Thus, the beginning of the year brought a series of loan promotions, and this time bankers moved to eliminate the loan application fee, one of the few allowed by the new law.
The fixed loan application fee does not go beyond 210 RON for consumer loans, but can go as high as 400 euros (1,700 RON) in the case of home acquisition loans, in line with data published on the websites of the ten largest domestic banks.
In most cases, fee cuts are little reflected in the final cost of loans as banks preferred to raise interest rate margins accordingly.