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Weekly Lists
March 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 27
bne:Credit Turkey plans to
establish its own credit rating agency
Turkey has plans to set up its own credit rating agency this year, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency president Mehmet Ali Akben said on March 12, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Akben made the announcement just days after Moody’s Investor Service cut Turkey’s sovereign rating further into junk, a move that prompted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to launch an attack on the international credit rating agencies in which he claimed they were attempting to drive Turkey into a corner and should not be taken seriously.
“Work is currently under way to clarify the organisational structure of the agency. We plan to establish Turkey’s national credit rating agency in 2018,” Akben told reporters in Istanbul.
However, should the agency be established, it may struggle to be taken seriously on international markets.
The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) executive board decided to cut the key policy rate to 3.25% on March 14, after keeping it stable at 3.5% for the four consecutive months.
The board decided to cut the rate primarily guided by the inflation projection and inflation factors in the coming period. Previously, on October 9, the board cut the key policy rate to 3.5% from 3.75% in September. For the previous 13 months, the rate had remained at 4%.
“Serbia’s inflation in February was lowered to 1.5% year-on-year, primarily on account of the high base from the prices of products that underwent one-off hikes early in 2017. Another confirmation of low inflationary pressures is core inflation, which measured 1.3% year-on-year in February,” the NBS said.
A controversial bill initiated by MP Daniel Zamfir of the opposition National Liberal Party (PNL) on setting maximum levels for inter- est rates on bank loans has been endorsed by the industries expert committee in the Chamber of Deputies, prompting panic among bankers.
If the bill is adopted, the total cost of mortgage loans will be capped at 2.5 times the monetary policy interest rate and the consumer loan interest rates charged by the banks and by non-bank financing institutions (leasing and consumer finance firms) at a flat rate of 18%, under the provisions of the bill endorsed by the senators.
Serbia’s central bank cuts key policy rate to 3.25%
Romanian parliament committee backs bill regulating loan interest rates