March 14 (SeeNews) - Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said on Wednesday its after-tax profit from operations in Romania increased 2% on the year to 107 million euro ($132 million) in 2017 on the back of lower provisioning costs.
Net provisioning costs fell to 75 million euro in 2017 from 77 million euro in 2016, RBI said in its 2017 financial report.
In the first quarter of 2017, a provision of 21 million euro was released after Romania's Constitutional Court ruled that the Walk-away Law could not be applied retroactively. Under the bill, adopted in April 2016, banks can seize from mortgage defaulters only the property for which the borrowers have been granted a loan up to 250,000 euro but cannot claim any further payment. In October 2016, the Constitutional Court repealed sections of the law connected to its retroactive application.
RBI's operating income from operations in Romania edged down 2% on the year in 2017, to 453 million euro. Net interest income rose by an annual 2.5% to 266 million euro, driven by lower interest expenses for deposits from customers.
The lender's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio in Romania dropped to 6% at the end of December, from 8.2% a year earlier, while the coverage of NPLs with provisions rose to 78.3%, from 74.1% a year earlier.
The bank's loan portfolio in Romania increased 3.9% on the year to 5.013 billion euro, driven by sustained positive performance in the retail segment.
Customer deposits increased 11.9% year-on-year to 6.487 billion euro at end-December, mostly driven by household savings. The ratio of net loans to deposits fell to 73.6% as at end-December 2017, from 76.9% in a year earlier.
Raiffeisen Bank Romania had 2.3 million customers at end-December, up 10% on the year.
RBI had 454 branches in Romania at the end of 2017 and employed 5,333 people.
Following are details on RBI’s performance in Romania (in millions of euro):
|
2017 |
2016 |
Profit after tax |
107 |
104 |
Pre-tax profit |
127 |
125 |
Operating income |
453 |
463 |
Net interest income |
266 |
259 |
Net fee and commission income |
176 |
185 |
Net provisioning for impairment losses |
(75) |
(77) |
Loans |
5,013 |
4,825 |
Deposits |
6,487 |
5,797 |
Total assets |
8,144 |
7,605 |
($ = 0.8104 euro)
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