The net profit of the Romanian banking system reached RON 7.56 bln (EUR 1.53 bln) in the first eleven months of 2021, enough to establish a new yearly record for the full-year - unless unexpected losses are recorded in December.

The encouraging data was released by the governor of the National Bank of Romania, Mugur Isărescu, during a meeting with the French ambassador to Bucharest and representatives of the Mouvement des Entreprises de France International.

This didn't come as a surprise, though, as the banks' profits after the first three quarters of last year reached RON 6.40 bln.

However, the annualised returns on equity (ROE) and assets (ROA) in Jan-Nov were slightly higher in 2018 - as the larger profits earned last year were partly due to the larger size of the banking system (by all measures: stock of assets and loans, new loans extended).

The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio also improved at the end of November, to 3.5% - down from 3.6% at the end of September (official data) - marking the best performance since the 2008-2009 credit crunch deteriorated the quality of banks' credit portfolios.

(Photo: Octav Ganea/ Inquam Photos)

iulian@romania-insider.com