Romanian financial group BCR, part of Austria's Erste Group Bank, recorded a net profit of RON 425 mln (EUR 87.0 mln) in the first quarter of this year (Q1), slightly down from RON 428 mln (EUR 89.3 mln) in the same period last year, on the background of lower credit risk provision releases.

The operating performance improved, underpinned by continued strong loan growth. The operating result increased by 10.7% to RON 487 mln (nearly EUR 100 mln).

However, the impairment result from financial instruments recorded a release of RON 34.7 mln (EUR 7.1 mln) in Q1 this year compared to a significantly larger release of RON 212 mln (EUR 44.3 mln) in the same period last year.

The stock of loans and advances to customers increased by 2.5% year-to-date to RON 44.06 bln (EUR 8.95 bln) as of 31 March 2021, while the annual growth was 8.6%, steeper than the banking system's 6.6% average increase.

The stock of mortgage loans in local currency increased by 19.5% yoy, and the stock of financing granted to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) segment (including by the BCR Leasing subsidiary) increased by 17.6% yoy to RON 7.3 bln (EUR 1.5 bln) as of 31 March 2021.

Also, the financing of the public sector increased by 17.7% yoy. The stock of loans to large corporate advanced by only by 2.4% yoy.

NPL ratio remained fairly stable at 4.4% as of March 2021 against 4.5% recorded as of December 2020.

The bank says that the evolution is reflecting the positive lending dynamics and the slight reduction in the NPL stock due to recoveries achieved on both retail and corporate segments. At the same time, the NPL provisioning coverage stood at 122.3% as of March 2021, the bank assures.

(Photo: Mircea Dragos, courtesy of BCR)

andrei@romania-insider.com