Why was ROBOR replaced with IRCC in 2019?

Because ROBOR reflected daily quotes between banks rather than real transactions, and its volatility moved consumer payments by hundreds of lei in a month. GEO 19/2019 introduced IRCC as an index based on actual deposit rates, recalculated quarterly.

Is my old ROBOR-based loan still valid?

Yes, contracts signed before 2 May 2019 stay on ROBOR unless you requested conversion. You had a temporary opt-in window, and switching now is only possible by refinancing.

Is ROBOR still published in 2026?

Yes, the NBR publishes ROBOR daily, but only for statistics and for legacy contracts still tied to it.

Is it worth refinancing a ROBOR loan into IRCC now?

It depends on your current margin, remaining balance and term. On loans with over 8 years left and balance of at least 47,500 lei, refinancing usually pays off when the rate gap exceeds 0.75%.

ROBOR vs IRCC explained: why the index changed and what

ROBOR, the Romanian Interbank Offer Rate, was for almost two decades the index used to set variable interest rates on Romanians' loans. It was quoted daily, based on the offers that ten commercial banks made to one another for short-term borrowing. In 2018 it jumped abruptly from 1.87% to 3.28% within a few months, and the instalments of some families with mortgages rose by 240 or 310 lei a month, without the economy showing any real change in that period.

That lit up the public debate about the index, and OUG 19/2019 followed, introducing the IRCC, the reference index for consumer loans. For new loans signed after 2 May 2019, ROBOR can no longer serve as a reference. For older contracts, things are more nuanced.

The transition in brief

• ROBOR reflected daily interbank quotes, not real transactions
• Its volatility moved consumer instalments by hundreds of lei within a single quarter
• OUG 19/2019 imposed the IRCC as an index based on deposit rates, recalculated quarterly
• New loans signed after 2 May 2019 are automatically on the IRCC
• Older contracts stay on ROBOR unless the holder requested conversion in 2019

Why ROBOR was taken out of the equation

The core problem wasn't the value of ROBOR itself, but the way it was formed. The ten banks that sent daily quotes to the BNR gave the price at which they would lend to another bank over 1, 3, 6 or 12 months. These were not real transactions, they were declared offers. The suspicion of manipulation surfaced from 2008 to 2009, when the LIBOR scandal in London revealed how large banks coordinated their quotes to favour their derivative positions. Between 2017 and 2018 the ANPC (Romania's consumer protection authority) received over 1,840 complaints tied to the abrupt rise of ROBOR rates, according to the ANPC Annual Report 2018 p. 22.

The Competition Council investigation opened in October 2018 did not prove premeditated coordination, but it did find a lack of transparency in the methodology and a sensitivity of the index to the moves of a single large bank. The final recommendation was a switch to an index based on real transactions, which set the stage for OUG 19/2019.

How the IRCC differs, technically

The IRCC is calculated as a weighted average of the interest rates on new deposits that commercial banks attract in the previous quarter, on maturities up to 12 months. The data source is the banks' mandatory statistical reporting to the BNR, not declared quotes. The volume of deposits serves as the weight, so the large banks with volumes in the billions of lei pull the index toward their real rates.

The practical difference is that ROBOR could jump 0.4% in a week, whereas the IRCC rarely moves more than 0.3% in a quarter. IRCC volatility was 3.4 times lower than that of ROBOR between 2020 and 2024, according to the BNR Annual Financial Stability Report, 2024 edition p. 31.

What happened to old ROBOR loans

OUG 19/2019 did not force the automatic conversion of older contracts. It gave loan holders a temporary right of option: they could ask the bank to switch to the IRCC, keeping the existing margin, at no extra cost. The window was open in 2019 and the first part of 2020. Whoever did not file the request in that period stayed on ROBOR.

The ANPC estimate from the 2023 Report p. 17 is that roughly 218,500 mortgage contracts still run on ROBOR in 2026, plus about 67,300 consumer loans with long maturities.

What you can do now if you have a ROBOR loan

The only route left is refinancing into a new loan, either on the IRCC or at a fixed rate. Your current bank will not change the index on the existing contract. The early-repayment fee on a variable ROBOR loan is zero, under OUG 50/2010 art. 67 para. 1, so the transition itself carries no hidden cost. Check when refinancing makes sense before you file an application.

Roman Dumitrescu, former risk analyst at BCR and later product manager at ING on consumer loans: „In 2019, when the OUG appeared, I had a month in which 30 or 40 clients came to the branch daily with the same question: do I switch to the IRCC or not? I explained that at that moment the IRCC was 2.36% and the 3-month ROBOR quoted 3.15%. Those who signed the conversion gained 0.79% a month on the index difference, without losing their old margin. Those who put off the decision, hoping ROBOR would come down, realised a year later that ROBOR had risen to 3.8% instead of falling.”

The difference on a concrete instalment

A mortgage of 187,500 lei with 20 years remaining, margin 2.8%. On the 3-month ROBOR at today's value (4.87%, per the BNR quote of 18 June 2026), the nominal rate is 7.67%, the monthly instalment 1,528 lei. On the IRCC of the second quarter of 2026 (5.67%), the nominal rate would be 8.47%, the monthly instalment 1,616 lei. The 88-lei-a-month difference now favours ROBOR.

The important thing is that this difference is not stable. In 2022 the situation was reversed, ROBOR quoted 7.98% while the IRCC stood at 5.71%. Refinancing decisions should be viewed over a horizon of 5 to 8 years, not on today's value.

• IRCC explained: how the variable rate is calculated
• BNR, Euribor and IRCC, how the rate is formed
• Refinancing, when it truly makes sense

ROBOR vs IRCC explained: why the index changed and what happens to old loans