May 25 (SeeNews) - The gross profit of ING Bank Romania rose by an annual 11% to 183 million lei ($46 million/37 million euro) in the first quarter of 2021, the lender said on Tuesday.
Provision costs fell 19% year-on-year in the first three months of 2021, to 96 million lei, ING Bank Romania said in a press release.
The bank's revenues added an annual 2% in January-March, reaching 544 million lei.
"Profitability increased this quarter, and demand for mortgages and personal need loans returned to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, we notice a higher appetite for investment diversification and for the use of digital payment methods," ING Bank Romania CEO Mihaela Bitu said.
The bank's loan portfolio expanded by 2% year-on-year to 29.4 billion lei in the first quarter, while deposits grew 20% to 46.6 billion lei.
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. The bank serves some 1.6 million customers in Romania.
ING Bank Romania's gross profit fell by 37% to 574 million lei last year.
(1 euro=4.9246 lei)