BRD-Groupe Societe Generale, the second-largest local bank, posted 367 million euros in net profit last year, an increase of about 33% on the 2007 figures, including the 61 million-euro proceeds from the sale of the Asiban stake.
"The crisis hit Romania as late as the fourth quarter and consequences were marginal. We had anticipated a slowdown of the economic growth since as early as the first quarter and took steps to contain overall spending," stated Patrick Gelin, BRD chairman.
In the fourth quarter, the bank posted 314 million RON (88.3 million euros) net profit, an increase of 33.6% on the same time in 2007.
Full-year spending went up by 23%, while revenues went up 27%.
Fees are a significant part of the 2008 revenue, 41% (1.3 billion RON), with the net interest margin accounting for the bulk of revenue, namely 1.4 billion RON.
The bulk of the net banking revenue, that is 46% was generated by corporate clients, while individual clients generated 38%
Return on equity reached 32.8%, down from the 35.4% in 2007, while the cost/revenue ratio continued to improve and reached 42%, even though BRD made investments worth 64 million euros. At the same time, the number of employees rose by almost 1,000 to 9,443, and the network expanded by 124 offices to a total of 930.
BRD officials expect the bank to post profit in 2009, as well, ruling out losses regardless of the more difficult situation of the economy.
"BRD-GSG has not had any problem at all. We had a very good base. We will have a tidy profit in 2009. Losses are out of the question," Sorin Popa, deputy chief executive officer of BRD said.
Gelin in turn stated that the bank had taken steps as early as the beginning of the year in order to cut costs and offset the credit risk increase by operating a slight increase in interest rates for loans.
He added that
