Mortgage, consumer loans to become more expensive in Romania

The benchmark index to be used by banks in setting the variable interest rates for consumer and mortgage loans (IRCC), increased in the first quarter of the year to 2.63% from 2.36% in the last quarter last year, News.ro reported. This means that the banks will charge higher interest rates to existing customers and calculate the interest rates on a higher benchmark starting July 1.

IRCC replaced the ROBOR under the revised form of the emergency ordinance (OUG) 114/2018. As opposed to ROBOR (based on banks’ quotations for 3-month and 6-month maturities), IRCC is calculated as the weighted average interest rate of the actual transactions on the money market (irrespective of maturity).

Thus, ROBOR actually stagnated in the first quarter of the year compared to the last quarter of 2018 at 3.23% for the 3-month maturity and 3.37% for the 6-month maturity.

(Photo source: Shutterstock)