Huge losses for Romanian banks

According to NBR, Romanian banks have recorded "240 million lei losses" in the third quarter. After the first nine months of this year, the global loss adds up to 474.5 million lei.

The Romanian banking system recorded a 240.5 million lei rise in losses in the third quarter, and has thus reached 474.5 million lei (110 million euro) at the end of September, according to data from the National Bank of Romania.

According to Nicolae Cinteză, the Director of the NBR Supervision Department, quoted by Mediafax, the important banks still have positive results.

"Most of the important banks have remained profitable, and the positive results add up to a 1.3 billion lei return. "

"The rest of the banks have a 1.77 billion lei cumulative loss", says Nicolae Cinteză.

As for the amount of residual credit, NBR data show that it has risen 9 percent in September, totalling 15.66 billion lei, which represents 7.47 percent of all the loans.

In the first three months of the year, banks had a 100 million euro cumulative return, half the profit of the entire year of 2009, as compared to a 50 million euro loss in the same period last year.

Still, after the first six months of the year, credit institutions reported a net loss of 234 million lei (55 million euro), as compared to a slight return, of 90 million lei, in last year’s first quarter.

In the first half-year, the provisions established by banks amounted to 20.2 billion lei, up almost 80 percent over June 2009.

In 2009, according to data provided by the NBR, the banking system recorded a net profit of 815 million lei (200 million euro), with 22 credit institutions ending the financial year with a profit, and 20 banks reporting losses.

Translated by: Gabriela Lungu and Elena Daniela Radu
MA students, MTTLC, Bucharest University