Volksbank Romania reduces its clients’ loan values

Local lender Volksbank Romania, which is owned by Banca Transilvania, will reduce the outstanding loans of its individual clients with the equivalent of the amounts they have already paid as risk or administration fee, regardless of the loan’s currency. The debt reductions, which will be made automatically by September 30, will first compensate the arrears that customers have on their loans. They don’t apply to the Volksbank Romania clients which already got back the full restitution of the sums paid by them as risk or administration fee. Thousands of Volksbank customers challenged the risk fee in court, and most of the court decisions were in their favor. The National Authority for Consumer Protection sued Volksbank Romania and requested the removal of the risk fee. Banca Transilvania, which took over Volksbank in the first half of this year, also made an offer to Volksbank’s clients that had loans in Swiss Francs (CHF) to convert those loans into RON in favorable terms. Most of the clients accepted the offer. editor@romania-insider.com