Romanian banking sector ended last year with the best performance of all time. It recorded a net profit increasing by more than 30 percent compared to 2016, the highest in history, regardless reporting currency, RON or EUR, digi24.ro informs.
Consolidated in EUR, the banking system’s profit rose last year to EUR 1.15 billion. The record high was EUR 1.1 billion in 2008 at the end of the year’s single currency.
Domestic banking system is one of the most profitable in Europe with a return on assets and capital well above the European average. Even though these indicators are falling sharply, they are still high.
2017 was the third consecutive year with profit in the banking system, and the cumulative result is RON 14 billion. These were the years of return, after the previous five, with a small exception of marginal profit in 2013, were marked by serious losses, with a total of RON 8.3 billion. But at that time, the banks were forced to adjust their portfolios and clean up their balance sheets, as bad loans had almost reached 22 percent, the source reads.
Last year, the rate of bad loans fell to 6 percent. Banks in Romania have sold underperforming loans of less than one billion euros, almost half compared to 2016, according to the data presented by the Deloitte. Sales of non-performing loans to debt collectors are marked as bank losses. The number of debtors to banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) fell to 658,000 in December, according to the latest National Bank of Romania data. These persons had arrears worth more than RON 7.38 billion.
The banks granted last year for the population new RON and foreign currency-denominated loans, amounting to RON 31 billion. It’s the highest level in the last nine years. Most of the new loans granted last year, ie 60 percent, went to consumption – almost RON 19 billion, 5.6 percent more than in 2016. Housing loans went up at a faster rate of 9 percent and reached RON 12.6 billion.