Some banks saw two-digit profit declines in H1, others experienced a rebound against 2009
The decline in banking activity, reflected in the reduction of
interest rate revenues, generated two-digit net profit declines for
many big banks on the market that were unable to cut spending to
match the revenue decline.
Nearly half the big banks posted two-digit profit declines, with
only one top-ten player posting a higher net profit in the first
six months of the year against the similar period of 2009. The
biggest profit decline was recorded by Alpha Bank, which reported a
23.7 million-euro gross profit, nearly 32% lower than in
January-June of 2009. The Greeks did not however publish their net
profit.
The BCR group, which owns the biggest bank on the Romanian market
by assets announced a net profit down by around 19%, to 117 million
euros. The profit decline was mainly caused by the rise in the cost
of provisions for non-performing loans.
The higher provisions were in fact the main factor-influencing bank
results in the first half of the year, with profits mostly
declining, despite the rise in operating revenues and the lower
operating costs.
On the other hand, Banca Transilvania posted a three times higher
net profit in the first half compared with the same time of 2009, 8
million euros.