The worst of the damage from Europe’s debt crisis is over for Eastern Europe, according Erste Group CEO Andreas Treichl. “I really don’t expect it to get worse, but it is bad enough for the moment,” Treichl said in an interview with Bloomberg in Alpbach, Austria. Erste Group has a controlling stake in major Romanian bank Banca Comerciala Romana’s (BCR) and results for the first half of the year showed falls across the board. BCR recorded net losses to the tune of EUR 124.9 million for the first half of 2012, while between January and June last year BCR saw a net profit of EUR 37.8 million.

However, in the interview with Bloomberg, Treichl said he saw positive signs in the Eastern European region, where as well as in Romania, the group has major holdings. He also suggested that margins and returns in the region are potentially significantly better than in Western Europe and added that Eastern Europe can “hope for growth.”

BCR had EUR 17.7 billion in assets at the end of 2011, an increase of 4.3 percent year-on-year, triggered by the growth in deposits.

Read the Bloomberg article.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

photo source: erstegroup.com