It has taken banks three weeks to adapt their offer after the National Bank gave a signal for a reduction of interest rates on deposits, by its decision to reduce the key interest rate by 0.5% on May 6, from 10% to 9.5% a year, Ziarul Financiar reported.

Since the beginning of June, over 14 banks on the market - both big and small - have cut their interests on RON deposits, with cuts ranging from 0.25 to 3.15%. The market has now moved from standard interest rates of 13-14% to 10-11%.

As far as large players are concerned, the most visible interest rate adjustments on standard term deposits denominated in RON have been operated by the BRD, the second-largest bank in terms of assets. Interest rates offered by the bank have gone down by as much as 1.75%, to 11.75-12%. BCR and Alpha Bank have, on the other hand, operated more moderate cuts, by 0.5%, to 11-12% a year.

Small players operating the biggest cuts are Libra Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and ProCredit, with the biggest cut being operated for the 12-month term deposit in RON offered by Libra Bank, where the interest rate was reduced by 3.15%, to 12%.

"It is to be expected that the central bank will further cut the monetary policy interest rate, which means interest rates will continue to fall. Now things are much more predictable, we are much surer that interest rates will go down," says Lucian Anghel, chief-economist of the BCR, the largest bank in the Romanian system.

Source: Ziarul Financiar