February 19 (SeeNews) - The combined profit of Romanian banks rose 35% year-on-year to 7.17 billion lei ($1.7 billion/1.5 billion euro) in 2018, as the share of non-performing loans (NPLs) dropped, data of the central bank showed on Tuesday.
The Romanian banks' NPLs ratio fell to 4.95% at the end of 2018, from 6.41% in 2017, central bank figures showed.
Return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) both ended last year in positive territory - at 1.59% and 14.85%, respectively.
The Romanian banks' total net assets increased to 451.1 billion lei at the end of December from 427.8 billion lei a year earlier.
The Romanian banking system's capital adequacy ratio rose to 19.66% at the end of last year from 19.97% at the end of last year.
At the end of last year, there were 34 banks operating in Romania, compared to 35 in 2017. This because Banca Transilvania [BSE:TLV] merged with Bancpost in October 2018.
Banca Transilvania acquired Bancpost from Greece's Eurobank Group in April 2018.
Banca Transilvania's shares were trading 0.335 lower at 1.83 lei on Tuesday on the Bucharets Stock Exchange as of 1326 CET.
(1 euro= 4.7480 Romanian lei)