The management of BCR, the second largest bank on the Romanian market by assets, controlled by the Austrian group Erste, changed its mind and decided to send the Austrian shareholders ordinary dividends of RON 1.14 billion (the equivalent of EUR 230 million) out of the profit generated in 2022.

At the recommendation of the central bank, BCR's shareholders put on hold the planned dividends in their first meeting in April. The revised decision came shortly after the bank raised EUR 700 mln with record green Eurobonds.

"The decision to distribute dividends in 2023 considers BCR group's capital strategy, according to which both the capital ratios and the MREL target will be comfortably met. As we mentioned, it takes into account in a prudent manner our organic growth planned for 2023, as described in our plans for 2023," the BCR management argues in the motivation of the proposal to grant dividends, which was pre-approved by the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of the bank, Ziarul Financiar reported.

The bank reported a net profit of RON 1.83 bln in 2022.

In April, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) sent a letter to banks asking for "a prudential approach to the distribution of dividends from the 2022 profit" in the context of the obligation to comply with the MREL requirement amid the limited capacity of the capital markets. 

iulian@romania-insider.com

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