Local banks recorded last year losses "much higher" than RON 2 billion (EUR 443.3 million), a level that was already exceeded in November and which has only deepened in December, said yesterday Nicolae Cinteza, Director of the Supervision Department within the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

"The banks' losses on November 30 were very high because they made provisions. The bad loans' rate went up to a 23% record high. It reached 14.6% in November, and it went below 13% in December," said Cinteza, cited by local Mediafax.

Not all banks followed BNR's requirements to clean their portfolios by the end of September, with the promise that they would do it by December.

The banking system ended 2013 with a cumulative profit of EUR 110.1 million. 23 banks reported a profit of EUR 454.4 million and 17 banks had aggregated losses of EUR 343.6 million.

editor@romania-insider.com