Romanian banks already post record annual profits after 11 months

The net profit of the Romanian banking system reached RON 7.56 bln (EUR 1.53 bln) in the first eleven months of 2021, enough to establish a new yearly record for the full-year - unless unexpected losses are recorded in December.

The encouraging data was released by the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, during a meeting with the French ambassador to Bucharest and representatives of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France International.

This didn't come as a surprise, though, as the banks' profits after the first three quarters of last year reached RON 6.40 bln.

However, the annualised returns on equity (ROE) and assets (ROA) in Jan-Nov were slightly higher in 2018 - as the larger profits earned last year were partly due to the larger size of the banking system (by all measures: stock of assets and loans, new loans extended).

The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio also improved at the end of November, to 3.5% - down from 3.6% at the end of September (official data) - marking the best performance since the 2008-2009 credit crunch deteriorated the quality of banks' credit portfolios.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)