Rekkers, BT: We want to boost lending by as much as 20%

Banca Transilvania plans to spur lending by as much as 20% this year, after having boosted lending volumes by 10% last year, and has the biggest demand pick-up expectations from the corporate segment, states Robert Rekkers, general manager of the lending institution.
The bank's loan portfolio in late 2010 stood at 13.36bn RON (3.14bn euros).
"We are confident in 2011 loan demand will rise and we have bigger expectations from corporate clients, without ignoring the SMEs, for which we will launch further products. The management's proposal will be for us to have a clearly higher lending growth target than in 2010, of as much as 20%, depending, however, on solvency requirements".
BT head says January was a typical winter month, without any spectacular signal, after a December he describes as a "good month".
"We cannot expect miracles at least in the first six months of the year. The economic situation is still serious, there are problems, but something positive has to emerge toward the second half of the year, when we hope we'll finally see a GDP increase, an investment rebound".
BT reported net income of 98m RON (23m euros) for 2010, up 58% from 2009. "It is a good income for such difficult times, but it is not as I'd like it to be, yet," Rekkers stated.