Local banks managed to rank first among Europe’s most profitable lenders, with a return-on-equity (ROE) of 15.6% at the end of the first quarter this year.

This was twice the EU average, according to the European Banking Authority (EBA), reports local Ziarul Financiar.

The Romanian banking system ranked second in the European profitability chart at the end of last year, after the Hungarian one.

Romanian banks are followed in terms of profitability by the ones in the Czech Republic with a ROE of 15.5% and the ones in Latvia with a ROE of 14.5%.

Romania also ranked high for the volume of non-performing loans. The NPL rate in Romania reached 9.9% at the end of March, almost double compared to the EU average.

Local banks recorded a record aggregate profit of RON 1.2 billion (EUR 262 million) in the first three months of this year, after a profit of RON 4.3 billion (EUR 430 million) last year.

editor@romania-insider.com