Greek bankers offer interest rates as high as 25% to attract RON from clients

In their struggle to secure liquidity, a few banks, especially Greek-held ones - have started to pay interests of 20-25% a year or even more to clients with sizeable deposits in RON - upwards of tens of thousands of euros (the equivalent sum in RON), according to market sources, while the best standard interest rates are of 15% a year. "Competition is fierce, and some banks are already withdrawing from this game," said a banker, who chose to remain anonymous. Players with very aggressive offers include Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank and Bancpost. Greek banks are not the only ones involved in this interest rate race, with some of the top players taking part, as well, say the quoted sources. Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank representatives had not offered comment by the time this issue was ready for print. "For the very large sums, in the range of hundreds of thousands and millions of euros, we allow heads of branches to negotiate interest rates one or two percentage points higher than the standard interest rates," says Mihai Bogza, chairman of Bancpost's Board of Directors.