BCR - loans in amount of EUR 300 million under the Program "First House 4"

Bucharest, February xx, 2012 - Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR) granted to date, loans in amount of EUR 300 million within the Government "First Home 4" Program and thus, helped nearly 8.200 families to buy their first house.

BCR began, on June 6th this year, financing within the Program "First House 4", being the first bank in Romania that joined in this stage of the program. Granting of First House loan rate is much more accelerated in stage 4 in comparison with the previous stages.

So far, BCR has granted over 23.000 loans within the 4 stages of the Program First House, the volume of these loans being approximately in amount of EUR 900 millions.

The average value of a loan of FH4

The average value of a loan from the First House 4 Program is in amount of EUR 37.700, in decrease towards the first stage of the program when the average value was of EUR 41.200. In addition, the average value of the advance paid by the clients to purchase their first house was of 10%. The clients have thus benefited by the preferential interest conditions and advance granted throughout the program.

The customer profile from FH4

In terms of profile customers beneficiaries of loans granted for First House 4, these are young men (25-34 years) who have taken the loan on a 30-year period.

Eligibility Criteria of FH

Can obtain a First House 4 loan any individual who has not owned solely or jointly with husband or wife, a house, irrespective of the manner and time when it was acquired, or who owns the exclusive property or together with the husband or wife, more than a house, acquired otherwise than by the Program, in a useful area less than 50 sqm.

The first step a person has to make in order to buy a house through the First House Program is to come to the bank, even if he has not yet found the house he needs. BCR counselors will present the details of the loan, the necessary documents for the loan file, the preliminary estimated value of the loan and the monthly installment to be paid.

The interest is variable and consists of 3 months Euribor plus a margin of 4%.

Thus, for a loan of EUR 40.000 de euro, for a period of 30 years, the monthly installment at the moment (varies depending on EURIBOR) is of EUR 224.

The customers must have a personal contribution (advance) of minimum 5%.

The Bank accepts up to 3 co-payers. No commission is charged for granting loan or monthly management fee. The fee for early repayment is zero.

The loan is partially guaranteed by the Credit Guarantee Fund for SMEs (FNGCIMM), the guarantee issued by FNGCIMM, in the name and the state account, having determined value, initially equal with 50% of the granted loan value. According to law, the client has to pay a management fee of 0,49% due to FNGCIMM applied to the value of the guaranteed funding - so half of the value of the granted credit. Also, the beneficiaries of credits obtained within the first 3 stages of the program will pay a lower management fee than in previous years - because the percentage of 0.49% applies to half the value of the outstanding balance and not to the integral balance, as in previous years.

If the client requires the FNGCIMM a guarantee promise, he will pay a unique analysis fee of the guarantee promise of 0.15% from the value of the guarantee promise. The validity of the guarantee promise is within the construction period, but not more than 18 months.

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Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), member of Erste Group, is the most important financial group in Romania, including specialized companies on the leasing market, assets management, private pensions and housing bank. BCR is No.1 bank in Romania on the assets value (over EUR 16 billion), No.1 Bank by number of clients and No.1 bank by savings and financing segments. BCR is the most valuable financial brand in Romania, according to the clients degree of confidence and to the number of those for which BCR is the main institution with whom they are banking.

BCR offers a complete range of products and financial services through a network of 48 business centers of business for companies and 668 retail branches located in major cities across the country with over 10.000 inhabitants. BCR is No.1 in Romania on the cards market and bank transactions, BCR clients having available the biggest national network of ATMs - over 2.000 ATMs and POSs - over 18.000 card payment terminals to merchants, as well as full service internet banking, phone-banking and e-commerce.

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Erste Group is one of the leading financial providers in Central and Eastern Europe. More than 50.000 employees serve over 17 million clients within 3.200 branches in 8 countries (Austria, Czech republic, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine). On September 30, 2011, Erste Group had total assets in amount of EUR 216,1 million, recording an operating profit of EUR 2.631.9 million and a cost/income ratio of 52.4%.