The lender’s Vice President, Omer Tetik, said that the lending activity was relaunched, because “there are serious signs of economic recovery.”
“In the past one and a half years, we forewent the aggressive lending policy and consolidated the existing client portfolio. Credit Europe Bank has a market share of almost two percent and 400,000 clients, many of which have been our clients for at least five years,” indicated Tetik.
The bank official said that the institution was not confronted with a large volume of loan restructuring requests, because early precautionary measures were taken, given the experience on CEB’s foreign markets. According to Tetik, the high degree of indebtedness was the main problem, causing most loan restructuring requests.
“The problem was that most loans were in foreign currency, the salaries were in lei, and the depreciation of the leu affected debtors. Many had made plans based on what was happening in the past three years, when salaries had increased at an annual 20 percent. Also, people thought that the value of real estate and durable goods, acquired with borrowed money, would continue to rise,” indicated Tetik.
