Last year the overall assets in the Romanian banking system roseby just 3.5% - the lowest increase in the last decade. The economiccrisis also took its toll on the balance sheets of banks, which hadto boost provisions and even remove loans from their balance sheetsbecause they knew they would never recoup them.
As of December 31st 2010 banks' assets amounted to 342 billion lei(80 billion euros), with BCR and BRD vying for the top position,just as 10 years ago, and being followed by a whole range of bankswhose assets were cut in half.
Last year, BCR managed to gain market share, after four years ofdecline, while BRD lost ground because it adopted an extremelycautious policy, no longer willing to take risks in an economyaffected by recession. This policy imposed by the risk-averse newmanagement, has borne fruit as far as non-performing loans areconcerned, but has also entailed losing clients with bigbusinesses.
BCR, on the other hand, has been very aggressive on the corporatesegment in over the last year, taking customers from other banks bybeing more risk-friendly.
In terms of profit, however, BRD fares significantly better thanBCR, reporting 501 million lei in income, which means its assetsfetch more profit despite being smaller.
Raiffeisen climbed to the third position, replacing Volksbank,which lost significant ground, falling to the eighth position.Breathing down Raiffeisen's neck is CEC, the state-held bank thathas been steadily gaining market share over the course of lastyear.
Next in the top ten ranking are Banca Transilvania, Alpha Bank andUniCredit, with Bancpost and ING on the bottom two positions.
The top-ten banks in the system account for 78% of its assets,proving how concentrated the Romanian market is.
The entire banking system posted a 304 million-lei loss last year,compared with a record-high profit of 4.4 billion lei in the 2008peak year.
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