The decline in banking activity, reflected in the reduction ofinterest rate revenues, generated two-digit net profit declines formany big banks on the market that were unable to cut spending tomatch the revenue decline.
Nearly half the big banks posted two-digit profit declines, withonly one top-ten player posting a higher net profit in the firstsix months of the year against the similar period of 2009. Thebiggest profit decline was recorded by Alpha Bank, which reported a23.7 million-euro gross profit, nearly 32% lower than inJanuary-June of 2009. The Greeks did not however publish their netprofit.
The BCR group, which owns the biggest bank on the Romanian marketby assets announced a net profit down by around 19%, to 117 millioneuros. The profit decline was mainly caused by the rise in the costof provisions for non-performing loans.
The higher provisions were in fact the main factor-influencing bankresults in the first half of the year, with profits mostlydeclining, despite the rise in operating revenues and the loweroperating costs.
On the other hand, Banca Transilvania posted a three times highernet profit in the first half compared with the same time of 2009, 8million euros.
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