Banca Comerciala Romana (BCR) announced a net profit of 1.045 billion lei (232.9 million euro) for 2016, backed by business development and an improved quality of the portfolio, up from the 913.2 million lei posted in 2015, the financial institution said in Tuesday release.
In 2016, BCR new loans to retail and corporate clients amounted to 8.8 billion lei, and the share of non-performing loans decreased to 11.8 pct from 20.2 pct in December 2015. The bank offered loan burden reduction solutions to 200,000 customers, while gradually expanding its financial education programs.
BCR’s operating result in 2016 was 1.297 billion lei (289 million euro), 16.9 pct lower than the 1.561 billion lei (351.3 million euro) registered in the year before, due to lower operating income coupled with higher investment spending, particularly in IT infrastructure.
In the bank retail business, new loans totaled 5.5 billion lei. BCR was the first local financial institution to implement the European Directive 17 on credit agreements for consumers.
On the bank corporate segment, BCR granted 3.3 billion lei in new loans. Co-financing of EU-funded projects was also solid, with BCR holding over 30 pct of market share and a portfolio of over 7.7 billion lei in granted co-financing.
Net interest income decreased by 10.3 pct to 1.786.7 billion lei (397.9 million euro) from 1.992 billion lei (448.3 million euro) in 2015.
The net trading result advanced 1.9 pct to 314.3 million lei (70 million euro) from 308.4 million lei (69.4 million euro) in 2015.
Deposits from customers increased by 13.2 pct to 48.235 billion lei (10.626 billion euro) as of December 31, 2016, compared to 42.626 billion lei (9.422 billion euro) as of December 31, 2015.
BCR offers a complete range of products and financial services through a nationwide network of 512 retail units located in most cities with a population higher than 10,000, as well as through 21 business centers and 23 mobile offices for companies. BCR owns the largest network of self-service banking equipment in the country. As of December 2016 BCR Group had 7,078 employees.
