Raiffeisen Bank International halves profit in Romania in first quarter

Raiffeiesen Bank International posted a EUR 16 million profit after tax in Romania in the first quarter of the year, down 56 percent on the same period of last year. The drop was mainly caused by the decrease in gains from financial investments and derivatives. The net results of these financial investments and derivatives was a loss of EUR 2 million in this first quarter, compared to a profit of EUR 19 million in the first quarter of last year., according to its most recent financial results. The bank's provisions during this period stagnated at EUR 16 million compared to the first quarter of 2010, but went down by 20 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Raiffeisen Bank made a EUR 37 million profit after tax in Romania in the first quarter of last year. The bank's operational revenues went down by EUR 1 million, to EUR 107 million during the first quarter of this year, compared to Q1 last year. Its revenues from interest went down from EUR 60 million to EUR 59 million. RBI had EUR 6.1 billion in assets at the end of the first quarter this year, up from EUR 5.8 billion the same time last year. The bank has 545 units in Romania and 6,154 employees. RBI Austria owns 99.5 percent of Raiffeisen Romania. editor@romania-insider.com