Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) will reevaluate its operations in Romania after the government imposed a new bank tax in a last-minute legislation in December, chief executive Johann Strobl announced on Wednesday, as quoted by Reuters.
Raiffeisen holds EUR 8.97 billion euros, which is around 6 percent of its assets, in Romania.
“We will need to reevaluate Romania,” Johann Strobl said in the lender’s annual report.
RBI official added the impact of the new tax could not be quantified yet.
Raiffeisen has over 5,000 employees in Romania, and over 2 million clients. The first subsidiary of the Austrian bank was opened in Bucharest in 1994.
In the December last year, the Romanian Government adopted GEO 114, imposing a new tax on the banks, the so-called tax on greed, according to the Robor index evolution.
According to a press release, Raiffeisen Bank Romania reported it closed 2018 with a profit of EUR 189 million, 79% more than in 2017.
The bank’s assets have increased by 11 percent up to RON 40.04 billion, while the loans granted to clients grew by 19 percent, up to RON 26.73 billion in 2018 and clients’ deposits were up by 11 percent last year, reaching RON 33.09 billion. “The very good evolution of the bank’s results is due to the rise in the market share for loans and due to a steady and balanced pace of organic growth on the main segments of clients and products. We are talking about the best results ever registered by the bank”, reads the press release.