After years of losses, the local banking system returned to profit, 2015 being the best year after the crisis for financial institutions’ shareholders.
According to central bank preliminary data, the assets of the Romanian banking system increased to over RON 377 billion (about EUR 84 billion), the maximum of the last eight years.
Return on equity (ROE), an indicator that measures the investment efficiency was 12.8 percent, while return on assets (ROA) was 1.35 percent.
Compared to 2014, the figures turn from minus to plus, but still far from the glory years of the banks. In 2008, the average ROE in the banking system stood at 17 percent, while ROA – 1.56 percent, with a net profit of RON 4.4 billion. Updated with inflation, the results in 2008 reached nearly RON 5.5 billion.
At the end of the third quarter, the banking system recorded a net profit of RON 2.25 billion. According to financial specialists, the difference up to RON 4.87 billion, comes from two thirds of the RON 1.65 billion obtained by Banca Transilvania after purchasing Volksbank.
At end-2015, the solvency ratio – one of the most important indicators monitored by BNR, which shows how well capitalised is a credit institution – reached to 17.5 percent, well above the minimum required of 10 percent, which indicates that banks have enough room to step up the economy’s lending.
Last year the number of banks has decreased to 36.
The NPL ratio continued to decline, from a level of 13.94 percent at the end of 2014 and 12.33 percent in September to 10.77 percent in December. Also the volume of outstanding loans decreased by RON 4.5 billion to RON 20.7 billion.
At the same time, the number of employees in the banking system continued to decline last year to 55,928, with 1,804 less than at end-2014.
On the other hand, the average net salary reached a record high in December, due to annual bonuses, to RON 5,891.
Banks have continued to close units and reached to 4,947 agencies, down by 357 than the previous year and by 1099 below 2011.