The first quarter of this year saw some of the largest banks in the system registering moderate income growth rates, with some of the banks that have published results thus far reporting smaller profits.
The leading banks managed to continue expanding, making higher incomes in the process. However, the banks that made very large investments in network development did not have as profitable a first quarter this year.
BCR managed to increase its profits by almost 10% in euros, against Q1 in 2006. The bank reached a net income worth 62m euros in Q1, excluding any costs related to its integration into the Erste group.
The French at BRD-SocGen also saw their net income improve by 12% reaching 168m RON (51m euros). In 2006, the French bank only managed a slight increase in its income, of 3% in nominal terms, in RON.
In Q1, the BCR increased its assets by 3.7% totalling 14.6bn euros. BCR granted loans to individual clients worth a little above 3bn euros. In RON, the volume of retail loans climbed by almost 42%, to 10.2bn RON.
BRD-SocGen did not publish any data on the volume of assets it currently controls. However, the French announced that the volume of loans operated had increased to a value of 19bn RON (5.7bn euros), 78% higher than March 2006. The figures for financing released to individuals also doubled.
In order to sustain its growth on the retail market last year, the BRD aggressively expanded its network bringing its total number of branches to above 600 (over 100 more than BCR).
Raiffeisen Bank, the 3rd biggest bank in the system, reported a 6.6% increase in assets in Q1 totalling 4.8bn euros. The Austrian bank only releases its detailed financial data on a half-year basis.
HVB Tiriac and UniCredit Romania, which are due to finalise their merger next month, saw a generated gross income worth almost 25m euros in
