Romanian lender Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) awarded bonuses of over EUR 488,000 (RON 2.1 million) to customers who made card transactions between October 19, 2011 and January 22, 2012. Moreover, the bank’s cardholders have received total bonuses of EUR 6 million (RON 21 million) since the beginning of this initiative, reads a BCR statement.

“There was a strong growth of card transactions with merchants, last year. The purpose of the program is to encourage card use as a means of direct payment, and the results can be seen in the 30 percent growth both in number and volume of transactions made with merchants in 2011, over 2010,” said Ahu Atay, director of BCR’s Cards Division.

BCR Group saw its net profit drop further last year, to EUR 16.1 million, just one seventh of the EUR 110 million net profit reported the year before. The fall was caused by lower income and higher provisions. In 2010, the group’s net profit was 46 percent down on 2009.

Erste Group increased its ownership in BCR to 89.1 percent by acquiring a stake of SIFs participation – the acquisition process is to continue in 2012.

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

(photo source: Sxc.hu)