Austrian group Erste Bank plans to continue cleaning the balance sheet of its local subsidiary BCR by selling significant packages of non-performing loans, said Josef Sikela, Erste Group board member.

“We will continue to sell non-performing loans in Romania. The plan to clean the bank is big, we are talking billions of euro. I can’t give the exact figure now,” Sikela said, cited by local Profit.ro.

BCR, which is the largest local bank based on its active assets, had a bad loan ratio of 22.2% on September 30, 2015.

The bank has recently completed the sale of a portfolio of non-performing corporate loans with a nominal value of EUR 1.2 billion. It was the largest package sold so far by a Romanian bank.

Erste also announced that it has allotted EUR 1 billion to increase lending to companies in the Central and Eastern European region this year, an important part of which might go to Romania, if the political and legislative environment is stable.

“We have a clear growth strategy for 2016 focused on corporate banking,” said Josef Sikela.

editor@romania-insider.com