ING says 50 percent of Romanians save money

Maria Cristina Matei, head of retail banking at ING Retail Banking, says Romanians continued to save money despite the sinking economy, citing studies which claim that around 50 percent of Romanians are putting money aside for various reasons, ranging from education to healthcare.  

What is the savings level in Romania compared to the region?

We rank low in the region but we are hopeful we can recover in time. The studies we have on Romania show that 50 percent of Romanians save one way or another, not necessarily through banks or deposits, and I think there is a lot of potential. The main reason for saving is common to other countries in the region and is emergency funds for our clients. Around 60 percent of the savings across the overall market are made in the local currency.

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How has savers’ behavior changed since the start of the crisis?

Their intention to save has definitely not decreased. Overall, the savings level and intentions (e.n of our clients) have remained unchanged. The crisis has brought greater awareness and we have new clients that do it.  

The average deposit at ING Bank Romania stands at over RON 20,000 but the average is not that important because we have clients with very big deposits and those with small deposits. Recently, we have focused on clients that have relatively small sums. There are clients with deposits of over EUR 100,000 and upwards, and we have a private banking service for large sums.

How had demand for retail loans been in the past year?

The market has fallen but at ING we have grown our loan stock. It’s harder to provide them than it was five years ago because of relatively low incomes and more cautious people, and the default rate doesn’t make things easy. We provide loans exclusively in RON. 

ovidiu.posirca@business-review.ro