Romania’s lender Banca Comerciala Romana BCR ended the first quarter of the year with a net profit of RON 1 billion (EUR 0.2 million), compared to a net loss of RON 10.2 million (EUR 2.3 million) reported in the same period in 2013, based on a solid operational result that exceeded the cost of risk.

Its assets dropped 6.8 percent to RON 65.8 billion (EUR 14.7 billion) at the end of March this year, from RON 70.5 billion (or some EUR 16 billion) registered in the same period of 2013. However, BCR, owned by Austria’s Erste, kept its first spot within the Romanian banking system based on its assets.

BCR Group achieved in the first three months a solid operating result of RON 551.7 million (EUR 122.5 million), slightly down from the result posted in the same period the year before, of RON 567.3 million (EUR 129.3 million), due to lower operating income, partially compensated by a drop in costs as a result of the bank’s recovery plan.

The operating income dropped 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014, to RON 914.1 million (or some EUR 203 million).

The net interest income decreased by some 10 percent, to RON 644 million (EUR 143.1 million), while the net fee and commission income increased by 23.1 percent, to RON 175.9 million (EUR 39.1 million).

The net trading and fair value result went down to RON 88.3 million (EUR 19.6 million) in the first quarter of the year.

The operating expenses decreased by 12.4 percent in the first free months of the year, to RON 362.5 million (or EUR 80.5 million), mainly due to the extensive measures to optimize staff and branch network, as well as strict cost management.

The non-performing loans ratio increased slightly to 30.2 percent of the total loan portfolio at March 31, 2014, due to the total reduction of the loan portfolio, mainly within the corporate segment.

The volume of loans to customers decreased by 14.7 percent to RON 36.6 billion (EUR 8.2 billion).

Erste Group posted a net profit of EUR 103.3 million in the first quarter of the year, while the total assets amounted to EUR 203.9 billion.

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