Romania’s biggest lender BCR, part of Austrian group Erste, posted a net profit of EUR 77.3 million in the first quarter of 2015, compared to a small loss in the same period of 2014.

The bank’s operating profit went down by 29%, to EUR 88 million, but BCR managed to compensate this with lower risk costs. In fact, BCR recovered some of the losses related to non-performing loans (NPLs) in the first quarter of 2015, some EUR 8.85 million.

The financial results reflect BCR’s efforts to reduce its NPLs and improve performing portfolio quality. BCR sold several big packages of NPLs last year and lowered its NPL ratio to 25.6% from 30.3% in Q1 2014.

“Q1 2015 financial results point out BCR’s recovery gains strong momentum. We are coming out of a difficult period; nonetheless we hold the satisfaction we were consistently doing the right thing throughout the turnaround,” said Tomas Spurny, BCR CEO.

“BCR already commands significant market share in retail business and the quality of corporate assets is improving continuously. Further to that, we are committed to channeling as much as possible of our exceptional liquidity and capital resources towards financing the real economy,” he added.

The bank’s total assets were EUR 13.7 billion, on March 31, down by 1.5% compared to the end of 2014.

BCR’s total loan portfolio went down by 2.1% in the first three months, to EUR 7.2 billion. The retail performing loans balance stood at around EUR 3.75 billion, on the back of new lending matching volumes of loans reimbursed or maturing. The housing loans portfolio increased by 13%, to EUR 2.15 billion.

The performing corporate loans stood at around EUR 2.6 billion, with new approved loans picking up, the bank reported.

Deposits from customers were slightly down by 2.7% to EUR 8.81 billion, as positive development in retail deposits was offset by a seasonal decrease in corporate deposits.

“BCR plans to keep focus on RON lending, so as to reverse the currency mix of the loan book in favor of local currency on medium to long term and fully use the strong self-funding capacity in RON,” the bank’s representatives said.

Romanian largest bank’s losses bring down Austrian group Erste’s results

Romania’s BCR to sell more non-performing loans after Deutsche Bank deal

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com