The Romanian government approved a bill at the end of April that allows mortgage borrowers to turn in their housing collateral and stop repayment of loans. According to The Banker Database, the largest stock of mortgages at the country’s top banks belonged to BRD Groupe Société Générale, which sat on $2.91bn of mortgages at the end of 2015 (see chart). Raiffeisen Bank Romania held the second largest amount of mortgages, at $2.1bn.
Both of these banks are subsidiaries of foreign groups. BRD Groupe Société Générale is owned by the French Société Générale, while Raiffeisen Bank is a branch of an Austrian lender. In fact, 91% of Romania’s banking assets belong to foreign banks, primarily Austrian, Greek and French lenders. However, Romanian banks tend to be less dependent on mortgages than many of their foreign peers. At Banca Transilvania, which is the largest bank in the country by Tier 1 capital and locally owned, mortgages amounted to $440.06m as of the end of 2015.
