BT sees net profit drop on increasing provisions

Newsroom 07/02/2010 | 12:42

Local lender Banca Transilvania (BT) posted RON 610 million or the equivalent of EUR 144 million in gross operational profit before provisioning in 2009, an increase of 96 percent on 2008. However, its net profit dropped by 86 percent, to around EUR 14.6 million, due to high provisions. Operational income rose by 27 percent from December 2008 to RON 1,293 million in December 2009. Banking assets grew by 14 percent during the year, to RON 19,472 million, and the ratio of credits to deposits was 0.81 at the end of December.

BT’s credit portfolio consists mainly of RON loans. Its total credit volume was RON 12,171 million at the end of last year, of which just over 58 percent was corporate and under 42 percent retail. The lender has less than 4 percent exposure to real estate developers. The number of operations with its customers went up by 28 percent on 2008.

“For BT, 2009 was a year of ripening both in terms of challenges and experience on the financial banking market. I have paid maximum attention to the aggressive policy of provisioning, risk management and quality of the credit portfolio and also to a very careful cost control,” said Robert Rekkers, general manager of BT.

The lender amassed over 150,000 new active customers last year, with its client portfolio having more than 1.37 million retail and corporate customers, according to its own calculating norms, and 2 million active ones according to BNR’s standards.