November 25 (SeeNews) - The net profit of ING Bank Romania rose 13% year-on-year to 599 million lei ($138 million/ 126 million euro) in the first nine months of 2019 on the back of higher revenues, the bank said on Monday.
ING Bank Romania's loan portfolio grew 9% on the year to 26.9 billion lei in the period under review, increasing the bank's share of the loan segment in the country to 10% from 9.8% in the like period of last year, the lender said in a statement.
Deposits grew 16% to 34.3 billion lei, representing a market share of 9.5%, compared to 9.0% at end-September 2018.
"We are noticing an accelerated dynamics of digital interactions, as customers increasingly prefer to use mobile applications for daily banking operations. Thus, one million customers are actively using Homebank, our digital channel for retail customers," ING Bank Romania CEO Mihaela Bitu said.
ING Bank Romania attracted more than 122,000 new active clients in the first nine months of the year, reaching a total of 1.4 million active customers.
The bank's revenues grew 13% on the year to 1.54 billion lei in the first nine months of 2019 as a result of increased volumes and growth of margins, while operating costs rose 3% to 675 million lei.
Risk costs amounted to 158 million lei due to portfolio diversification.
ING Bank Romania's NPL ratio was 3.4% at the end of September, 0.4% higher than a year earlier.
ING Bank Romania is a unit of Dutch banking group ING, which entered the Romanian market in 1994 and started developing its retail business in the country in 2004.
(1 euro=4.7722 lei)