OTP Bank Romania's after-tax profit plunges 89% y/y in Q1

The negative development in the Romanian unit's after-tax profit came partly due to a new banking tax introduced in 2024, which requires the bank to pay 2% of its turnover in additional tax, OTP Group said in an interim financial report last week.

OTP Bank Romania's operating profit declined by an annual 8% to 3.497 billion forints in the first quarter of the year, whereas operating expenses rose by 3% to 13.613 billion forints.

Net interest income decreased by 16% year-on-year to 13.840 billion forints in the first trimester of 2024, while net fee and commission income fell by 12% to 1.519 billion forints.

The total assets of OTP Bank Romania stood at 1.645 trillion forints at end-March, up by a yearly 4%.

OTP Bank Romania's gross customer loans stayed flat in annual terms at 1.148 trillion forints through March. Retail loans went down by 8% to 491.5 billion forints.

In February, Romania's largest lender by market share, Banca Transilvania, announced it will fully acquire the OTP Bank Romania for 347.5 million euro. Last month, Romania’s competition authority said it was looking into the agreed takeover.

In Southeast Europe, OTP is also present in Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Slovenia, Montenegro and Moldova.

(1 euro=387.8615 forints)