Romanian president Klaus Iohannis returned to Parliament the law aimed at exempting the housing bank customers from returning the subsidies (bonuses) received illegally from the state by 2016, under the saving-borrowing mechanism for mortgage lending, Profit.ro reported.

Under the mechanism, recipients of the scheme were extended subsidies - but the Court of Auditors found irregularities in many cases (non-compliance with the scheme's rules) and asked in Court the recipients to return the money.

The High Court (ICCJ) ruled that part of the customers of BCR's and Raiffeisen Bank's housing divisions should return the money.

The Parliament passed a bill to waive the payments owed by some 300,000 customers under the ICCJ ruling.

The presidency alleges a violation of the Constitution and interference in the final decisions of the ICCJ, which established that state subsidies were illegally paid to hundreds of thousands of customers of BCR-BpL and Raiffeisen BpL.

The High Court ruled definitively that the Court of Auditors correctly sanctioned the two banks in 2016.

The Court also concluded that over 300,000 Romanians illegally collected the state premium in the credit saving system by participating only in the saving phase of this system, including with contracts for minors and people over the age of 65, without taking out loans related to housing construction or improvement.

By the law recently adopted with the vote of PSD, PNL, UDMR, PMP and Pro Romania and that of minorities, bank customers would have been exempted from refunding premiums of up to EUR 250 per year illegally collected, estimated at RON 680 mln (EUR 140 mln) in total.

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andrei@romania-insider.com