Romanian banking sector ends H1 with 192 mln lei (43 mln euro) loss - c-bank

Romania's 41 banks ended last year with a 777.3 million lei loss, the central bank said in the 7th edition of the Financial Stability Reportf assessing the soundness of the Romanian financial system in 2011 and the first half of 2012.

It added that capital injections of the banks' shareholders totalled 550 million euro ($718 million) in the first half of 2012, compared to 280 million euro in 2011.

"The banking sector operated within adequate parameters against the background of still modest economic growth, which also had an impact on the further increase in non-performing loans," the central bank said commenting on the banking sector's performance in the first half of 2012.

"Risks to the banking sector were adequately managed thanks to the behaviour of shareholders and managers. [...] Solvency, provisioning and liquidity levels remained adequate and real sector financing was not significantly affected in the period under review," it added.

The share of non-performing loans in the Romanian banking system grew to 16.8% at the end of June from 14.3% at the end of 2011, the report showed.

Thirty-four out of Romania's 41 banks were majority foreign-owned with international investors having 81.2% market share in terms of assets at the end of June. Austrian banks controlled 38% of the market at the end of June.

(1 euro=4.5047 Romanian lei)