In the space of two weeks, two changes took place in the banking market. As of September 1, the moratorium on increasing commission prices that banks can charge to clients no longer applies, that is, the National Bank of Serbia did not extend this decision, but made a new one - limited to 15 months interest rate on housing loans up to 200.000 euros.
This decision will apply from October. How RTS states, the banks are acting surprised by the central bank's decision and are not advertising for now.
According to the Public Service, extraordinary management sessions are underway. The latest decision is currently being analyzed and a response is being prepared.
It is not yet known what it will be like, but immediately after the lifting of the moratorium, a number of banks raised funds for their obligations.
The decision of the National Bank of Serbia is excellent news for those who repay housing loans, and there are about 158.000 such housing loans in Serbia, and this decision, as it is limited to loans up to 200.000 euros, will cover about 100.000 of them, according to the NBS.
"It may happen that credit activity is significantly reduced, but we have to look at it from the other side, that in the upcoming savings month we may also see a reduction in the passive interest that banks pay for savings deposits." Indeed, we will see the calculations when the banking sector comes forward, but this is a big blow to banking profitability, because you limit the margin to about one percent and the difference between the administrative and market interest is somewhere around three percent, which is really a lot," believes the Singidunum University professor Nikola Stakić.
For example, for a loan of 100.000 euros with a fixed interest rate of three percent, plus the six-month Euribor, the current installment is 694 euros, and the interest rate is almost seven percent. From October, the interest rate drops to 4,08 percent, and the installment to 532 euros, that is, 162 euros less.
After the deadline, i.e. the end of 2024, banks will not have the right to ask citizens to compensate them for the difference.
As the director of the NBS Control Sector, Darko Stamenković, says, depending on the moment when they took the loan, and until the remaining installment due date, it will affect the reduction of the installment by 10 or even more than 25 percent," he explains.
"This year saw an increase in the profitability of the banking sector. They will bear part of the current crisis and the increase in interest rates, but it will certainly not affect the stability of the financial system. This will be ten percent, on average, of the total banking profit in the banking sector this year," says Stamenković.
BG/RTS
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