Belka: Foreign currency loans still a problem for Polish banks
22:49
The President of the National Bank of Poland, Marek Belka, has said that the Polish banking sector is under strain from mortagages taken in foreign currencies, stating that banks should not sweep the problem under the carpet.
“We cannot pretend that the banking sector doesn’t have a problem with foreign currency loans … We cannot just leave this problem unattended, say, for the next 20 years,” Belka told bankers on Wednesday.
“It was a huge mistake to let universal banks hand out mortgage loans in foreign currencies,” the central banker underlined.
As of end-December 2013, Poland’s overall individual mortgage portfolio rose by 4.5 percent year-on-year to PLN 336.27 billion, while foreign currency mortgage loans fell by 5.3 percent y/y to PLN 168.82 billion. Mortgages in złoty rose by 16.7 percent y/y to reach PLN 167.45 billion.
