UniCredit Ţiriac Bank has recorded reasonably good financial results for the first nine months of 2012. The Romanian lender registered an 18.4 percent rise in profits on end-September 2011 results to reach around EUR 33 million in net profits. The figures also comply with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The more than EUR 16 million Q3 net profit was almost equal to the total from the first two quarters.

However, the bank’s total income was slightly down on last year – a 1.3 percent fall to EUR 204 million for Q1, Q2 and Q3 2012. Operating expenses were up by 3.5 percent, but loan provisions saw a fall on last year – down some 19.4 percent. UniCredit Ţiriac Bank’s total assets valued EUR 5.2 billion at the end of September, more than 10 percent higher than end-September 2011. The balance sheet for loans was around EUR 4.6 billion.

Lending to companies was also up, particularly loans for small businesses, which increased by 45 percent on the first nine months of last year. Loans to medium-sized companies were also higher, by some 25 percent.

The bank’s solvency ratio increased, asset quality remained stable and risk costs fell on last year. “We managed to have a positive development, with a good level of liquidity, a healthy margin of capital and an increase in volumes, giving us a favorable position in the market and, more importantly, we have continued to provide credit to the economy,” said UniCredit Ţiriac Bank CEO Răsvan Radu.

UniCredit Ţiriac Bank is part of UniCredit Group, a European banking group with over 3,900 branches in Central and Eastern Europe. In Romania, At the end of September 2012, UniCredit Ţiriac Bank had a Romanian network of 209 branches, serving approximately 595,000 customers.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com