The consumer protection body ANPC issued a decision by which ING Bank Romania should recalculate the interest and fees for some 90,000 loans, most of which are already repaid by customers, and return to borrowers the difference estimated by the bank at RON 350 million (EUR 70 million).

The bank also estimates that the recalculation will require some 291,000 hours of work, according to Profit.ro.

The decision is based on ordinance 50/2010.

The bank has already challenged the decision in court, which agreed to suspend the effects of the ANPC's decision until the content of the challenge (whether the interest and fees should be recalculated) is ruled. The court reasoned that the ANPC's decision involves a considerable amount of work, and reversing the effects of ANPC's decision, in case the decision is eventually scrapped by the court, would affect the bank's credibility.

ANPC already challenged the suspension of its decision.

ANPC has a weak record in its court trials with the banks after it required most of the Romanian banks to recalculate the repayment schedule for all its customers, such as to charge equal principal repayment instead of equal installments. However, the top management of ANPC has changed since the unusual request formulated by the consumer protection body, and the issue was supposed to have been tackled.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Andreea Constantinescu/Dreamstime.com)