Romania’s banking system will remain in the profit area this year after its aggregate profit increased to RON 1.6bn at the end of October from RON 1.5bn in Jan-Sep, the head of the central bank's surveillance department, Nicolae Cinteza, told a banking conference as quoted by news agency Mediafax.
Roughly half of the 41 banks will report profits at the end of the year, while the rest of them will remain in the negative area, he added.
Romania’s banking system reported aggregate losses in 2010-2012 and turned into the profit area in 2013 despite the share of bad loans that keeps rising, and the sluggish creation of new loans.
Banks have probably increased their provisions for bad loans rather sharply in November and will continue to do so in December as they are adjusting their provisioning policies to the IFRS, Cinteza commented, implying that the end-year profitability would visibly decrease.
The stock of provisions under the national methodology increased by more than RON 1bn in September to RON 45.9bn [EUR 10.3bn] at the end of the month to account for 22% of the banks’ total exposure [loans plus deposits]. In October, however, the stock of provisions increased much slower, by only RON 318mn.
Non-performing loans (NPLs) in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) fell to their lowest levels since the global financial crisis in 2024, but early indicators suggest rising risks ... more
The European Commission has approved Romania’s planned €200mn capital increase for state-owned CEC Bank, allowing the country to proceed with strengthening the lender’s financial position, ... more
Addiko Bank, an Austrian financial institution specialising in the consumer and SME sector operating in Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSE), is preparing to launch operations in Romania with the ... more