THE INITIATORS OF THE GIVING IN PAYMENT LAW QUESTIONING THE AUTHORITIES Piperea - face to face with the presidential administration

Lawyer Gheorghe Piperea has succeeded in obtaining a meeting with the officials of the Presidential Administration, on the issue of the giving in payment of homes.

Gheorghe Piperea is set to meet today with Mr. Cosmin Marinescu, presidential advisor, and during the talks the lawyer wants to present his arguments in favor of the passing of the law that he has initiated.

Yesterday, BURSA wrote that the representatives of the Presidency have had meetings with the banking sector on the issue in question, after the requests of banking borrowers to be sent to the Presidential Administration, whereby the debtors who have asked to have meetings with the president have been redirected to the Chamber of Deputies or to certain departments of the Presidency throughout the year.

Yesterday, liberal deputy Daniel Cătălin Zamfir, one of the initiators of the law, has publicly asked NBR governor Mugur Isărescu to state his point of view on the "threats" made by Mr. Nicolae Cinteză, the head of the Oversight Division of the NBR.

Cătălin Zamfir posted the following message on his Facebook page: "Either Mr. Cinteză spoke on his own account and then he needs to be fired because he has dragged the NBR into an unprecedented situation, or he did so with the Governor having full knowledge of what he was going to say, and that would mean that Mr. Isărescu needs to take responsibility for threatening the MPs with calling the National Anti-Corruption Department on them for passing a law which the NBR and the banks aren't happy with!"

Over the last few days, Nicolae Cinteză said that the National Anti-Corruption Department should check the circumstances in which the legislative draft has been initiated.

In an interview he granted BURSA, he said: "Nobody thought it through the moment they initiated this draft law, the political interest has been far too great, and demagogy has exceeded any precedent. They have invoked the social function which the state needs to fulfill.

If the state wants to fulfill its social role, then it should be the one to pay, not the banks! I think that the National Anti-Corruption Department should verify the circumstances in which this draft law has been initiated".

Lately, since the law of Giving in Payment has been approved by the Parliament, heavy controversies have taken place between the parties involved - its initiators, the banks, the NBR and consumers.

• Vascu, ANEVAR: "I think that the law of giving in payment has generated more talks than effects"

"I think that the law of giving in payment has generated more talks than effects", says Adrian Vascu, the president of the National Association of Authorized Evaluators in Romania (ANEVAR), who said that he doesn't understand what valuation the banks would be taking back the assets at, under the new law.

"The NBR has been asking since spring, for guarantees that the valuation of the properties in question is the right one, if the banks take back properties under the giving in payment law, whereas provisions would be set up for the remaining amount".

Between 2007-2008, banks have relied on a formidable exuberance and on the perception that everything would rise, while the risks perceived by the evaluators were very small, as that profession was unregulated yet, at the time, the ANEVAR representative said.

He claims that there have been situations in the past where loan officers would call the evaluators and tell them that a certain property had to be appraised at a specific value.

"On the side of the banks, the criminal groups include internal evaluators, of the credit institutions", the head of the evaluators in Romania said, and he stated that the ANEVAR is currently acting towards eliminating ambiguities, so that evaluators are as responsible as possible. The market value of an asset should be the same regardless of the bank, he warns.

As for the amounts that properties have been valued at between 2007-2008, they have been influenced both by the market itself, which was at a high point at the time, as well as by certain errors within the system.

Adrian Vascu brought up the German model pertaining to the lending system, and he stressed: "If the market valuation is a sinusoid, in the German lending system it is the long-term valuation that is taken into account, which is always the low tangent of the market values of the property in question. That value is taken into account in order for the asset to have a sustainable valuation in the long run".

It has been discussed extending this model to all of Europe, and in Romania discussions have been carried out with the banks in that regard. "The ANEVAR standards write that the model in question only applies to mortgages", Mr. Vascu said. Nevertheless, evaluators are willing to apply the German model, according to him. He said that the ANEVAR has talked to German specialists on that subject. Romanian evaluators have said that they have agreed with the application of the German model only if the European directive on the matter is transposed without any changes.