AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PARLIAMENT BY BANK CUSTOMERS, AFTER THE POSTPONEMENT OF THE DEBATE ON THE LAW OF GIVING IN PAYMENT: "Do not give in to the huge pressure and the blackmail of the banking system"

Senators have begun their winter session with a one-week postponement of the Law on Giving in Payment, at the request of the banks' representatives, who claimed that they did not have enough time available to study the amendments.

Deputy Daniel Zamfir, the initiator of the law, explained: "Today (ed. note: yesterday), even though it was supposed to go up for debate in three commissions of the Senate, the law of giving in payment was postponed on claims that the banks have not formulated an opinion, even though I have submitted the amendments two weeks ago. Obviously this is a tergiversation, an excuse to stall for time so they can intensify their pressures against the parliamentarians and to continue the blackmail with the killing of lending.

It's like in a war, when various strategies are being devised. Except the war started by banks is one against Romanians, and these postponements only make people get even more bitter when it comes to them! They are arrogant, cynical, and they show contempt when it comes to the needs and particularly the suffering of people!

Dear bankers, if you didn't get it yet, you are the ones killing lending, because you have destroyed the relationship of trust between banks and customers, because there are corrupt banks, there are banks that have abusive terms in their contracts, you have humiliated in all this time those who have tried to restructure their loans, in short, you have brought to their knees the ones who were supposed to be considered partners and off whom you made huge profits".

Cristian Dan, the administrator of the Group of CHF borrowers, told us: "If the banks' defenders have said that they did not study the amendment, they are pathetic. I am sure those amendments were studied the second they were made public. If it is true that the debate of the law has been postponed because of that, then I am sorry for people in the legal commission, who shouldn't have postponed anything, considering that this law is being awaited like a lifeline by many borrowers. What I can see is stalling. This is what is driving people crazy".

Following yesterday's decision by senators, unhappy bank customers have sent a letter to the Romania Parliament, called "We are people, not numbers!", which we reproduce below:

"I am a Romanian citizen, I am citizen x. I am a bank debtor and I am at the end of my rope. I have a CHF denominated loan and I am anxiously awaiting for the promulgation of the law of giving in payment. I am writing to you because I can not bear the situation I find myself in anymore, I want for this abuse that I am being subjected to by the bank to stop. I want for this economic, moral and physical genocide which the banking system has been practicing for years against the population to end. A population which elected you!

I am writing to you because I see that the things that hurt me, that are killing me slowly, every day, have become the subject of postponement. Because I notice the huge pressure which the banking system is making to hijack the law, to make it inapplicable to the mere citizen, to me.

I am writing to you because it is you that I have voted for, and not the representatives of the banking system, I am asking you for the law of giving in payment to be passed in the version that was proposed by Mr. deputy Daniel Zamfir, taking into consideration the amendments proposed by him, without any further changes, as quickly as possible! Do not give in to the huge pressure and the blackmail of the banking system, prove that you support people, not banks!

I am writing to you because I can not take this huge humiliation anymore! For more than a year, the law of conversion is lying inside drawers, a law which people need, which I need. Please speed up the talks concerning this law, it is unacceptable for people to continue dying in Romania because of an abusive banking system, that rife with problems, that respects nobody and nothing, simply to profit off people who are continuously abused. Give us back our trampled dignity and our European status, we are people, not serial numbers that generate profit!

And please take my letter into account. There are many like me, and there will be even more. And there is a God!

With hope,

Citizen x

Customer abused by banks".

Deputy Daniel Zamfir hopes that the request for reexamination sent to the Parliament by president Klaus Iohannis for this normative act will be passed by the senate by the end of February.

Daniel Zamfir yesterday said that the amendments which he has formulated when it comes to this law which is currently undergoing reexamination in the Parliament there is at least the one in which the notion of "individual" is replaced with "consumer": "The term «individual» is replaced with «consumer» precisely to exclude the professionals from this law. According to the Civil Code, they are individuals that take out loans to develop businesses. So, in order to make it unequivocal, real estate brokers, real estate developers that have taken out loans for business do not benefit from this law. The giving in payment applies to every loan, including mortgage backed consumer loans. Giving in payment applies to everything that a mortgage has been set up for".

President Klaus Iohannis has told the Parliament at the end of last year the request to reexamine the law concerning the extinguishment of loans by the giving in payment of properties, claiming that this project is welcome, but that the version adopted by the parliament, could create "difficulties" instead of helping borrowers.

The version that was sent to the Parliament was also criticized by NBR governor Mugur Isărescu who was saying, in the beginning of January, that senators and deputies must take into account, when reexamining the law of giving in payment, the recommendations received, including from the European Central Bank, so that the law would protect only those with home loans and not other types of borrowers.