Raiffeisen Bank ups profit in Romania on higher lending activity

Raiffeisen Bank, one of the top five lenders in Romania, recorded a net profit of EUR 107.5 million in 2017, up by 9% over the previous year, on the back of a higher lending activity. The bank’s assets went up by 8% to EUR 7.75 billion, at the end of December 2017, pushed by an 8% increase in the net loan portfolio, which reached EUR 5.85 billion, according to a press release. “Our responsible and balanced development strategy is visible in the loans growth ratio: the loans to individuals increase by 9%, those to SMEs went up by 11% while lending to big companies advanced by 10%. We are very happy with the evolution of new loans extended in 2017, which went up by 19% over 2016, to RON 13.6 billion (almost EUR 3 billion),” said Steven van Groningen, president and CEO of Raiffeisen Bank. Loans to individuals represented about 57% of the bank’s total portfolio at the end of 2017. The bank also reduced its non-performing loans ratio from 8.2% at the end of 2016 to 6% at the end of 2017. Raiffeisen Bank serves about 2 million individual clients, 100,000 SMEs and 5,600 big companies. The bank had about 5,200 employees and 451 units at the end of 2017. Raiffeisen Bank Romania chooses responsibility as theme for its brand repositioning editor@romania-insider.com