Over 655,000 bank debtors fall behind with payments

The individuals' loan payments to the banks more than 30 days overdue totalled 2.7 billion lei (629 million euros) on Nov. 30, 2009, up by 5.83 percent from October, while the number of the debtors having fallen behind with the payments stood at 655,907, according to figures made public by the National Bank of Romania on Tuesday.

In November 2009, the overdue payments had gone up by 148.61 million lei, from nearly 2.55 billion lei in October.

The biggest outstanding debts were recorded in the national leu currency loans, namely 1.701 billion lei.

The euro lending outstanding payments totalled the equivalent of 860.6 million lei at end-November, a 3.8 times rise in the 11 months of last year, while the outstanding payments to US dollar loans amounted to the equivalent of 10.56 million lei, marking a 4.3 times rise on Dec. 31, 2008.

The fastest rise was recorded at the outstanding payments in other currencies, with most of them being Swiss franc loans, that surged 6.5 times over Jan.-Nov. 2009 to the equivalent of 124.42 million lei.

More than 90 days overdue payments have gone up 2.6 times since the beginning of 2010.

The bank debtors having fallen behind with the payments totalled 655,907 persons, up from 645,201 in October, the central bank said.

Agerpres