The higher interest rates of Romanian banks than those in developed countries in Europe have covered a higher inflation, of 44% over 10 years, compared to 17% in Europe, Florin Danescu, the executive chairman of the Romanian Banking Association (ARB) told on Wednesday the "Romanian Financial Conference", organized by BusinessMark.
He argues that the three initiatives in Parliament - the limitation of interest rates, the loss of the enforceability of a credit agreement and capping the level of debt recovery - affect the business model of banks by increasing expenditures, higher costs and limiting revenues.
Danescu said that the legislative initiative on capping interest rate would take the effective annual interest rate below that one currently used by banks. Thus, for mortgage loans, banks have interest rates between 4.5% and 6.6%, and the interest rate proposed by the legislative initiative reaches an effective annual interest rate of 5.6%, commissions included.