Over 1,000 Volksbank clients ask court to interrupt loan payments; first trial date, Nov. 2011

Over 1,000 Volksbank Romania clients have asked the court for their bank loan installments to be discontinued while they are on trial hoping to eliminate the allegedly abusive clauses in their loan contracts. The first term for the collective trial has been set for November 7, next year, but the law firm representing the Volksbank clients, Piperea & Asociatii, is analyzing whether to request a sooner date for the trial. The lawyers found 25 clauses they deemed abusive in the additional papers to the clients' loan contracts, which have been recently changed to comply with the Emergency Ordinance 50/2010. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently asked for the emergency ordinance 50/2010 on consumer lending contracts to be applied only to new contracts and not to existing ones. The Government Emergency Ordinance 50/2010 entails a more transparent bank interest calculation, linking the final interest to ROBOR or EURIBOR interbank rates, canceling the risk fee and, in case of loans with variable interest, canceling the reimbursement fee altogether. Consumers had expected a lowering of the interest rate – and consequently of their monthly installment, hoping banks would replace their internal interest rate with ROBOR/EURIBOR, while keeping the fixed margin at the same level. Banks have however kept the same interest level and changed the way it was calculated, which triggered the consumers’ discontent. Groups of unhappy customers have already started lawsuits against banks like BCR and Volksbank on this issue, while banks lobbied for the ordinance to be changed. editor@romania-insider.com