Raiffeisen Bank Romania increases profit and assets in 2014

Raiffeisen Bank Romania, part of Austrian group Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), ended 2014 with a net profit of EUR 113 million, up 9% year-on-year. In 2013, it registered a profit of EUR 104 million. The bank’s revenues amounted to EUR 455 million, similar to 2013. Its assets reached EUR 6.41 billion last year, up from EUR 5.94 billion registered at the end of 2013, Raiffeisen has announced. This stands for an 8% increase. The bank's loan book increased by 4% last year, to EUR 3.81 billion, while the deposits registered a 7% growth, reaching EUR 4.7 billion. “A net profit of EUR 113 million, a return on equity of 17% and a declining rate of non-performing loans are achievements we can be proud of. We managed to increase the number of clients in certain segments in 2014, to increase revenues in corporate banking, to attract more deposits and to reduce operational costs by an additional one percent,” said Steven van Groningen, president and CEO Raiffeisen Bank. The rate of non-performing loans decreased to 7.5% in 2014, from 8.7% the year before. Increasingly more of the bank’s clients used electronic channels to conduct operations in 2014. More than 110,000 clients used Raiffeisen Online in 2014, up 16% year-on-year, while the number of Smart Mobile users almost doubled last year, to 19,500. Raiffeisen Bank serves some 2 million individuals, 100,000 SMEs, and 7,700 companies. Its network comprised 527 units at the end of December, one less than in December 2013, over 1,100 ATMs and some 13,000 EPOS. At the end of 2014, the bank employed 5,409 people, down from 5,484 in December 2013. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com