Erste's Romanian unit BCR allows 30,000 coronavirus-hit borrowers to postpone loan payments

Some 36,000 BCR customers have asked for a delay in their loan repayment schedule from March until now, the bank said in a press release.

The bank also said that it has received 1,030 payment postponement requests from corporate clients. Some 500 of the requests came from from small entrepreneurs, while the rest were by companies with an annual turnover higher than 1 million euro ($1.1 million). The bank said it has granted 80% of requests by small entrepreneurs and 75% by companies.

A government decree issued at the beginning of April offers individual and corporate borrowers affected by the coronavirus crisis an opportunity to delay up to nine months their monthly repayments of bank loans.

In March, Romania's central bank BNR said that banks would not be required to set aside provisions for the restructured loans. Until now, if a loan is not serviced for three months, it becomes non-performing.

BCR's net profit rose 60% year-on-year in the first three months of 2020, reaching 428.3 million lei ($96 million/ 88 million euro), supported by a higher operating result and the positive impact of significant recoveries from non-performing customers, BCR said.

(1 euro=4.8395 lei)