Romanian banks could sell about EUR 3 billion non-performing loans this year, according to the consultancy company KPMG.

Local lenders have sold EUR 3.5 billion worth of bad loans out of an estimated total of EUR 12 billion, since 2013. Most of the non-performing loans had been granted before 2008, and were later restructured.

In 2015, banks traded EUR 2.2 billion bad loans. The largest local lender BCR sold a package of bad loans worth EUR 1.2 billion to a consortium led by Deutsche Bank. The market won’t record a similar transaction this year, according to KPMG.

However, the market’s potential is between EUR 1.5 billion and EUR 3 billion.

editor@romania-insider.com