BRD-SocGen, the second-largest bank on the Romanian market by assets, ended the third quarter of the year with a 107 million-RON (around 25 million-euro) net profit, down 54% against the similar period of 2009.

This is the lowest quarterly profit recorded since the beginning of the crisis, with provisions for non-performing loans reaching an all-time high of 425 million RON (100 million euros) in July-September. "The difficult economic context influences us directly, with the rise in the net cost of risk resulting from the deterioration of the overall economic situation," says Guy Poupet, president of BRD.

In the first nine months of the year the bank had of over 1 billion RON (247 million euros) in provision costs, up 56% against costs recorded in the similar period of 2009. The net profit decline implicitly deepened: it saw a 13.7% drop in mid-year against the first half of 2009, and plummeted to 28% at the end of the third quarter.

The result was, however, driven by the net interest rate margin, which fetched almost 1.4 billion euros in net revenues, up 21% against the similar period of 2009, with BRD no longer involved in the deposit interest rates battle.

BRD shares fell 0.81%, to 12.3 RON in yesterday's trading session of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with the market capitalisation amounting to 8.5 billion RON (2 billion euros).

BRD-SocGen, the second-largest bank on the Romanian market by assets, ended the third quarter of the year with a 107 million-RON (around 25 million-euro) net profit, down 54% against the similar period of 2009.

This is the lowest quarterly profit recorded since the beginning of the crisis, with provisions for non-performing loans reaching an all-time high of 425 million RON (100 million euros) in July-September. "The difficult economic context influences us directly, with the rise in the