Andreas Treichl, the president of Erste Group, which owns Romanian lender BCR recently said that the depreciation of its goodwill in Hungary and Romania was one of the negative news of the year, but he added that Romania will still bring nice surprises in the future, he said for the ORF radio station. Also, Treichl thinks that the region where Erste operates will also bring positive surprises in the coming years.

“If we’ll get in a situation where Erste Group can’t provide the 750 million of its own resources, the problem of Austria and Central and Eastern Europe will be other than Erste (...) We will then be in the middle of an unthinkable financial crisis,” said the Erste president (in picture). However, Treichl doesn’t think that “a catastrophe will come upon us” in 2012, even though it will not be a “rosy” economic situation.

According to the stress test conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA), Erste Group Bank requires additional capital amounting to EUR 743 million, according to the results for the third quarter.

Read more about the stress test here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Erste Bank)