Erste’s BCR first bank to drops early repayment loan fee

Austrian Erste Group’s subsidiary Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) announced it has dropped the early repayment fee for newly contracted bank loans if they are without guarantees and with variable interest.It is the first bank on the Romanian market that announces the move after the Romanian government earlier this week said it would impose a European law banning the unfair practice for all loans including mortgages.The fee, which amounts to up to five per cent of the value of the rest of the sum to be paid, is currently imposed by banks in Romania when a customer wants to pay off their loan earlier than stipulated in the contract.The new measure announced by BCR applies to newly contracted loans, not to the ones that are already in progress.If the bank loan is contracted with a fix interest for the whole period, then the fee for early repayment is a of maximum one per cent, the bank said.Under the European Union (EU) directive, banks would be limited to charging just one per cent of the loan for unguaranteed loans of up to 75,000 Euros as of June 2010.