Greek group Alpha Bank’s Romanian subsidiary moved to profit in the first three months of the year, from losses of over EUR 6 million during the same period in 2015.

The positive result was due to the drop in the provisions for non-performing loans by almost two-thirds.

The bank reported a pre-tax profit of EUR 4.3 million in the first quarter of this year. The operating income rose by 1.5% year-on-year to EUR 33.6 million whereas the expenses increased by 0.5% from EUR 22 million to EUR 22.1 million.

The provisions for bad loans dropped by 59% to EUR 7.2 million from EUR 17.6 million in the first quarter of 2015. The non-performing loans ratio reached 15.8% at the end of March compared to 16.5% during the same period in 2015.

editor@romania-insider.com