November 13 (SeeNews) - The gross profit of ING Bank Romania rose 35% year-on-year to 529 million lei ($128 million/ 114 million euro) in the first nine months of the year on the back of growing revenues, the bank said on Tuesday.
ING Bank Romania's loan portfolio increased 17% year-on-year to 24.6 billion lei in the first nine months of 2018, increasing the bank's share of the loan segment to 9.8% from 8.9% in 2017, the lender said in a statement.
Deposits grew 18% to 29.6 billion lei, representing a market share of 9%.
During January-September, ING has attracted more than 155,000 new active clients, reaching a total of 1.25 million active clients.
The bank's revenues grew 28% on the year to 1.35 billion lei in the first nine months of 2018, while its operating costs rose 23% to 656 million lei due to stepped-up activity, investment in IT infrastructure, regulatory costs and added employees.
Risk costs rose 48% on the year to 96 million lei, due to the increase and diversification of portfolio, as well as due to changes in the international financial reporting standard 9 (IFRS9).
ING Bank Romania's NPL ratio was 3% at the end of September, 0.2% lower than a year earlier.
The net profit of ING Bank Romania grew 4% year-on-year to 493 million lei in 2017 on the back of strong lending and deposit growth.
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=4.6599 lei)