Raiffeisen Bank ended the first quarter of this year with a net profit of RON 212 million, more than double compared to 31 March 2017, as a press release informs. At the same time, the bank’s total assets increased this Q1 to RON 37.21 billion (13 percent year on year growth).
The main engine of this highly positive development was the lending activity. Loans to customers grew by 15 percent in net worth, in a balanced way on all customer segments – large and medium-sized corporations, SMEs and individuals.
“We have very good results for the first quarter of 2018, which are based both on credit growth, especially for corporations and SMEs, and on the increase in deposits attracted from our clients. We thus have the satisfaction of making an important contribution to the financing of the Romanian economy”, said Steven van Groningen, president & CEO of Raiffeisen Bank.
Loans to large and medium-sized corporations increased monthly in 2018 (an increase of 18 percent, yoy), mainly from project financing or overdraft loans. SME loans were mainly supported by the Cosme program, with an increase of 21 percent yoy.
On the savings side, the deposits attracted by Raiffeisen Bank increased by 17 percent in Q1 of 2018 yoy and exceeded RON 30.4 billion.
Bank’s revenues reached RON 554 million in the first three months of 2018, up 16 percent yoy. The bank’s operating expenses increased slightly compared to March 2017 (RON 320 million at the end of the first quarter of 2018).
”The bank will continue to invest considerable amounts in the digitization process. since the future means flexible, fast, easy to understand and affordable banking products and services. Meanwhile, the amounts spent by the bank on complying with all European and national regulations that entered into or will enter into force in 2018 are significant. At the same time, costs in the economy have increased, mainly due to wage increases and the inflationary process, and these elements influence the bank’s operating costs,” the release reads.
The non-performing loans ratio reached 5.3 percent at the end of March 2018 (6 percent in December 2017 and 8.3 percent in March 2017).
The number of users of the mobile banking app increased by 78 percent compared to the same period last year. Overall, Raiffeisen Bank has exceeded the threshold of 500,000 active clients for online and mobile banking. In the first three months of this year, the bank’s customers made over 4 million online transactions and logged in more than 50 million times.
The number of online debit card transactions made by individuals was 30 percent higher compared to the first quarter of 2017.
The bank management points out that it is the leader of the credit card market with approximately 480,000 active cards as of March 31, 2018, an annual increase of 10 percent. 95 percent of the amounts traded through Raiffeisen Bank credit cards are used in POS or online shopping.
Raiffeisen Bank has one of the best private banking services on the market, managing assets in excess of RON 5.6 billion for 1,400 clients who use advisory services, financial instruments and related services.
The number of individual clients stood at 2 million, relatively constant as compared to March last year. The bank also has approximately 100,000 SMEs and 5,600 corporations. At the end of the first quarter of 2018, the bank had 5,186 employees (5,224 in March 31, 2017), 445 outlets across the country, more than 1,000 ATMs, 19,000 POS and 191 multifunctional machines.