Bucharest, 20 October. In the first nine months of this year, consumers submitted 3,394 requests to the Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Banking Sector (CSALB), compared with 2,121 in the same period of 2025. The payment difficulties that consumers continued to face in their dealings with banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) led to a 60% increase in requests to renegotiate existing contractual obligations. Negotiations facilitated by CSALB this year have generated benefits worth approximately EUR 1.2 million. As a result, the total value of benefits generated since the Centre began its operational activity more than 10 years ago has reached approximately EUR 18.7 million.

Of the requests received by the end of the third quarter of 2026, 2,287 were addressed to banks, compared with 1,620 in the same period of 2025, while 1,107 concerned consumers’ relationships with NBFIs, compared with 501 at the end of the third quarter of 2025.

Consequently, the share of requests addressed to NBFIs increased from 23.6% last year to 32.6% this year. Meanwhile, requests addressed to banks account for 67.4% of the total, down from more than 76%.

Negotiable requests account for 85% of all submissions. At the end of the third quarter of 2025, they represented 76.5% of the total, compared with 71.8% in the same period of 2024. This increase is partly attributable to the decline in requests to have Credit Bureau records deleted: from 803 at the end of Q3 2024 to 500 at the end of Q3 2025, before rising slightly to 513 at the end of Q3 2026. Such requests cannot be handled through a CSALB negotiation case; instead, they are resolved directly by the parties or closed without further action.

During the first three quarters of the year, banks accepted 572 requests for negotiation, while NBFIs accepted none. In 90% of the negotiations conducted this year, the parties reached an agreement by accepting the solutions proposed by CSALB conciliators. Of the 1,950 negotiable requests submitted to banks, 572 were converted into negotiation cases. This means that approximately 30% of negotiable requests addressed to banks were resolved with the assistance of a CSALB conciliator.

Direct settlement between banks or NBFIs and consumers following a complaint to CSALB is another way of resolving requests, particularly when the issues are straightforward and do not necessarily require the expertise of CSALB conciliators. During the first three quarters of the year, 333 cases were settled directly, compared with 217 in the same period last year. Banks also relied on this direct settlement method more frequently than NBFIs: banks resolved 277 requests directly, compared with 176 at the end of Q3 2025, while NBFIs resolved 56, compared with 41 in the same period last year.

Alexandru Păunescu, representative of the National Bank of Romania on CSALB’s Coordinating Board: „From January to September, almost 800 Romanians resolved financial problems arising from their ongoing contracts with banks, either with the assistance of a CSALB conciliator or directly with the credit institution. These issues were resolved quickly, free of charge and without going to court. Moreover, not only did these consumers avoid litigation, but by the end of the third quarter, a further 73 lawsuits pending before courts across the country had been closed because the parties wanted to and succeeded in reaching an amicable settlement through CSALB. Since 2021, approximately 900 disputes pending before the courts have been settled amicably.

This year has highlighted even more clearly the difference in approach between banks and NBFIs when it comes to their willingness to resolve consumer complaints through CSALB. While banks resolved approximately 42% of the requests registered with CSALB, either through conciliation or directly, NBFIs did not accept any requests for negotiation. Direct settlements between NBFIs and consumers, without the involvement of a conciliator, were reached in just 56 cases. Thus, of the 1,107 requests submitted to NBFIs, only 5% were resolved

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About CSALB: CSALB is an entity established following a European Directive and facilitates, free of charge and in less than three months, negotiations between consumers and banks or non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) for ongoing contracts.Consumers from any county in Romania can submit requests to the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center for the Banking Sector (CSALB) by completing an online form on www.csalb.ro. If the bank agrees to enter the conciliation/negotiation procedure, a conciliator is appointed. CSALB works with 16 conciliators—top legal experts with financial-banking expertise. All disputes are resolved amicably, and the agreement reached by the parties has the force of a court ruling. For more information about the Center’s activity, you can also call 021 9414 (standard rate).