In March 2016, a woman from Bucharest demanded back 47.5 lei per month. 10 years later, people are negotiating the deletion of tens of thousands of euros

It was Monday morning, March 2016, when Mariana R. sent a request to the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center in Banking (CSALB): she wanted back a commission of 47.5 lei per month, charged by the bank due to an administrative error.

No one knew at the time that that file opened a precedent that was going to change, subtly but profoundly, the way Romania manages its financial conflicts.

Ten years later, more than 6,000 negotiations have passed through CSALB's filters. The smallest amount disputed: a few lei. The biggest: tens of thousands of euros written off from a mortgage loan. Between these extremes is, in fact, an x-ray of the way in which Romanians related to banks — with fear, with anger, with ignorance, and gradually with a financial maturity that no one had anticipated.

Like in front of a judge — what banking Romania looked like in 2016

CSALB's file number one might seem trivial: 47.5 lei per month, an administration fee that the bank had maintained in the contract, although the law — GEO 50/2010 — said otherwise. Conciliator Mihaela Budișteanu received the case. The decision: the bank refunds 50% of the amounts charged since 2010 and reduces the commission to 2 lei/month.

File two came right after. Valentin N. demanded 2,664 euros — the monitoring commission of a mortgage loan from 2006. He got all the money back.

“I notice two main changes in the ten years of conciliation within the CSALB: nowadays there are more and more requests made by lawyers, and the attitude of the banks has changed for the better compared to the beginning period. We can talk about a new trend in which lawyers guide their clients to seek an amicable settlement with the bank, before being called to court. And, most of the time, it does not end up in front of a judge, because the parties accept in most cases the solutions proposed by us, CSALB conciliators. The advantages over the court are important: conciliation has the power of a court decision, the amicable procedure lasts only a few days and is free for consumers”, says Mihaela Budișteanu, conciliator in the first case. Banks no longer come to CSALB to defend themselves, but to offer solutions.

The anatomy of a successful negotiation: the family from Bucharest and 60,000 lei

Marian Vlad is 44 years old and has a loan contracted in 2014, when he moved to Bucharest with his family — a move dictated by the medical problems of a child that requires continuous treatment. He was never late on a payment. But the expenses accumulated, and the rate of 500 lei per month began to press harder and harder.

In 2025, he turned to CSALB. Three weeks later — just phone and email, no roads, no court case — the bank wiped 60,000 lei from the remaining balance and halved his rate.

The solution offered within CSALB was like a new beginning, he says. His story is not singular. Ioana Rusu, 45 years old, turned to the Center in 2022, when the ROBOR was swallowing the budget of her family with two small children. The bank wrote off more than €20,000 from his mortgage balance — the equivalent of ten years of installments. With the resulting savings, he also paid off his car loan.

“It's like he made us 10 years younger,” says Ioana Rusu. The metaphor is as revealing as the numbers.

From commissions to restructured loans: how financial Romania matured

Valentin Cocean, the conciliator of the second file, sees a profound change in these ten years. At first, the Romanians were convinced that any commission in the contract was abusive and should be eliminated. Today, consumers are more nuanced. I know what they want. They no longer come on the brink of financial collapse — they come to anticipate problems, to preemptively renegotiate, sometimes even to clarify matters of principle.

Another sign of maturity: lawyers. If in 2016 consumers came to CSALB alone, with requests written like letters of protest, now they come more and more often with legal representatives — not to escalate the conflict, but to resolve it faster. We can talk about a new trend in which lawyers guide their clients to seek an amicable settlement with the bank, before being sued – notes Budișteanu.

The procedure itself has been simplified. The average resolution period dropped below two weeks — compared to the 90 days recommended by the legal framework. In the first quarter of 2026, CSALB is heading towards exceeding 900 registered claims, of which approximately 35 files have migrated from the courts to the negotiation table.

Alexandru Păunescu, the representative of the National Bank of Romania in the CSALB Coordination Board, looks back, admitting that he also has a disappointment: that the model was not replicated. Utilities, telecommunications, transportation — fields where conflicts between consumers and companies are just as frequent and just as asymmetric — do not have a CSALB of their own. The Romanian consumer who has a dispute with the mobile phone operator or the energy supplier does not have, in 2026, an alternative to the court.

What remains after ten years?

Romanians have learned that they can negotiate with the banks. That they are not bound to accept the first no. That there is a space for dialogue where fairness can weigh more than the contract paragraph. Banks, for their part, have learned that coming to the negotiating table doesn't mean surrender — but sometimes, preventing much bigger losses in court.

Mariana R. asked for 47.5 lei. He got half, plus a reduced commission for the future. It seems little. But in that modest transaction a principle was established: in Romania, the consumer has the right to ask. And sometimes, it is answered.