“I took out a mortgage loan in 2008, from which I still had to pay 62,000 lei, which is more than 12,500 euros. Now I work for the minimum wage in the economy and support my mother,” says Gabriela Cliveti from Bihor.

The woman turned to the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Banking Sector (CALB). “I called CSALB because I couldn’t find an understanding in the bank, and I was constantly delayed in getting an answer. To my surprise, even though I asked for a balance reduction, I received full debt forgiveness. The entire procedure took about a month, from submitting the application to receiving the decision,” she says.

Alina Ungurianu, Timișoara: I took out a mortgage loan in 2007, but in the meantime my husband fell ill and could no longer work. Since then, our income has dropped a lot. Of the €9,600 that was still in the balance, the bank removed €3,800, canceling the fee, and returned the amount to the account. After 40 days, everything was ready. With this money, we decided to shorten the credit period from 15 years to 9 years. We will do everything we can to pay the down payment so we don’t lose the house, especially since I have a child to raise. This is a very good service. This is all that could be agreed upon, and we are satisfied with it, because our situation has changed for the better.

The IT application, through which consumers can send requests directly from the website www.csalb.ro, has a more advanced typology of requests from this month. The new categories were identified after analyzing the queries submitted by consumers: moving to a fixed interest rate, IRCC/ROBOR increase issues, bank deposit issues, leasing issues, claim waivers and settlement negotiations.

Pressure from widespread price increases and rising bank interest rates has forced banks to accept more negotiation requests from consumers to the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution in Banking (CSALB).

Since the beginning of the year, 823 consumers have gone through the entire negotiation process (application, negotiations, final decision – a decision made by both parties) or reached a direct agreement with banks/IFNs by contacting CSALB. Compared to the same period in 2021, the increase is 85% (in the 3rd quarter of 2021, 445 Romanians were in one of these two situations). The benefits received by consumers who agreed with the banks during this period of the year exceed 1.5 million euros.

Nicoleta Barsan, Bucharest: “The decision I received was the reduction of the monthly rate from 700 to 450 lei, even if we are talking about a personal loan taken last year in October. This makes me think that the bank behaved in a really human way, because my previous image was that the bank is a bank, they will do anything to get all the money back under the contract.

We saw that this is not the case, and from now on we will always remain customers of this bank. They erased 10,000 lei from our debt after my father and I lost our jobs. We took out a loan to repair the house and go to the dentist. When the problems deepened, we started having delays of 1-2 weeks with the payment of contributions. I learned about CSALB from a law professor and called directly, I didn’t go to the bank anymore. After the negotiations started, the bank asked us how we could pay the down payment. Then I told him 400 lei, but actually we didn’t even expect to reach the 450 lei left at the end.”

Alexandru Peunescu, representative of the National Bank of Romania in the CSALB Coordination Council: “In 2022, 102 court cases were closed because the parties wanted and were able to find a peaceful solution within the framework of CSALB.”

Since the beginning of 2022, more than 2,000 Romanians have applied for CSALB, about 10% more than in the same period of 2021. Filing a claim and negotiating through a mediator is free for consumers. Within 15 days after sending the request, the bank/IFN responds if it enters into negotiations or refuses a settlement agreement.

Unfortunately, 824 requests to remove records from the Credit Bureau could not be negotiated at CSALB (248 for banks and 576 for IFNs), be resolved directly between the parties, or be classified.

How did banks and IFIs react?

This year saw the lowest percentage of rejected applications and the highest number of direct deals.

• Thus, applications rejected without valid reasons represent 4.7% of all applications (compared to 16.7% at the end of Q3 2021). Following queries sent by CSALB to the banks, some of the initially rejected requests have been reconsidered and accepted for negotiation.

• The number of files (requests accepted for approval) this year is 32% more than in the same period of 2021 (506 files compared to 383 files).

• In 92% of negotiations held this year within the framework of CSALB, banks and consumers reconciled, that is, they accepted the solution proposed by the mediators of CSALB.

• Direct merchant-to-consumer settlements (after CSALB notification) tripled compared to the previous year: from 143 cases in 2021 to 428 direct transactions in 2022 (of which 168 were with banks and 260 were with IFNs).

Benefits received by consumers: 7.5 million euros in 6 years of operation.