The net profit registered by the banking industry broke a new record last year, when the 40 players on the market made 825 million euros (2.75 billion RON), an around 32% increase on 2006. The annual increase calculated in RON stood at almost 25%.
This rapid growth pace is even more spectacular, considering the banking sector had managed to boost net profit by only 7% in RON, and by 10.2% in euros in 2006.
The significant growth in profit, however, was concentrated on a relatively low number of banks, as the data published by players after nine months revealed. The average net profit across the system was about 20.6 million euros. The profits were influenced by the development phases of the banks, as some of them were still making investments to expand. Nine months into the year, the figures looked very good for the market leaders. BCR had a year of restructuring yet its groupwide profit had already gone up to 219 million euros in September, while for BRD, 2007 bore the fruit of the previous years' investments, after net profit increased to some 207 million euros.
The profit increase across the industry occurred amid a fast-paced rise in net banking assets, which exceeded expectations and ended 2007 at more than 71 billion euros (250.7 billion RON).
The assets amounted to 63 billion euros at the end of September, which indicates the performance of loan sales in the last quarter of the year. Almost 60% of assets, however, are concentrated in the balance sheets of the five largest banks on the market, without taking into account the loans registered abroad.
To many big banks, 2007 looks like the best year they have had since entering the market, although bankers continued to complain about the narrowing margins, the tightening competition or the excessive costs of the minimum mandatory reserve required by the NBR.
The image of the results in euros is affected by the correction suffered by the RON over the last part of last year, or else the value of net assets would have been even higher. The assets of the banking system in RON increased by more than 45% last year, more rapidly than in 2006, while the increase in euros stood at approximately 39%. At the same time, because of the exchange rate trend in the second half of the year, the value of assets appears to be higher in the case of those banks where loans in euros account for the largest share in the total.
The unprecedented expansion of banks is markedly visible: the number of branches increased by 1,080 compared with 2006, to 5,481. Implicitly, the banking industry continued to be one of the most active employers: it attracted 7,565 people, whilst the total number of employees reached 65,655 at the end of December.
Despite networks' rapid growth, some major market players implemented strict cost control measures, so that profit per employee improved across the system, from 38,000 RON in 2006 to 42,000 RON in 2007.
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