Big Romanian banks suffer a bruising first quarter: BRD's profits down, BCR records losses

Two of Romania's biggest banks have had a bad first quarter in 2012. BRD Groupe Societe Generale, Romania's second largest bank, reported 39 percent lower net profits for Q1 2012 than in the first quarter last year, triggered by the higher net cost of risk. BRD recorded net profits of around EUR 19 million for the first three months of 2012, while last year's Q1 net profits were over EUR 30 million. BRD is owned by French banking group, Societe Generale, and runs 940 units in Romania.

Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR), the country's biggest bank when measuring by assets, also had a rough first quarter. Losses of around EUR 70.8 million were suffered, whereas in 2011, the bank recorded Q1 profits to the tune of EUR 17 million. For BCR, net charge with risk provisions for loans has significantly increased- almost doubled, to some EUR 213 million, reflecting the impact on BCR corporate customers of the difficult business environment. Companies remain the main contributor to non perfoming loans (NLP), but BCR says NLP remain at a manageable level, with a coverage ratio (collateral and provisions) of 107.6 percent. The bank's total assets were down 1.6 percent., to some EUR 17.3 billion, mainly due to higher risk provisions and the drop in financial assets available for sale. Austrian banking group Erste owns a controlling stake in Romania's BCR. Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com (photo source: Romania-Insider.com)