The executive president of BCR, Dominic Bruynseels, hopes the bank he is heading will post a similar profit this year as last year, despite the increasing rate of non-performing loans. Bruynseels expects a difficult year ahead, although he also forecasts lower risk provisions throughout the rest of the year.

Although interest rates have dropped, there was not increase in the lending activity in the first quarter of the year, according to Dominic Bruynseels. The mortgage lending sector was the only one with a positive evolution, fueled by the First House program.

BCR Group posted a net consolidated profit of EUR 206.3 million in the first quarter of the year. The bank's profit was of EUR 59 million, which was 26 percent lower than in the same period of last year.

BCR holds a 26 percent market share of the total number of state employees with loans, which is about 100,000 people, according to Bruynseels. He also said around 30 percent of the bank's customers have asked for the loan restructuring, but after talking to the bank's representatives, only five percent have chosen to do so in the end. The rest have managed to pay their installments in time.

BCR is owned by Austrian group Erste.