Related strictly to the bank, the net profit climbed to RON1.380 billion, compared with RON728,000 in 2016, the bank said in its preliminary financial report.
The number of active clients increased by 41,000 compared with last year, of which natural persons by 38,000 and small companies by 3,000.
The stock of internet and mobile banking contracts for natural persons reached nearly 1.4 million in 2017, 21% more on the year. The number of MyBRD Mobile subscribers rose 45% year-on-year.
Net loans rose to RON30.3 billion in 2017, up 5.3% versus the end of 2016, underpinned by an increase on the natural persons segment and on the portfolio of large clients. The loan production for natural persons remained dynamic, reaching RON6.4 billion (+13.8% on the year), with BRD holding a 16.9% share on the market of loans for natural persons.
Non-retail loans inched up 0.4% in 2017, with the portfolio of large clients seeing a positive evolution of 3.1% compared with a year before.
Deposits grew 3.8% to RON44.2 billion on the year in 2017, fuelled by retail clients’ savings (up 5.8% on the year). Non-retail deposits were quasi-steady (up 0.5%) in the context of a comfortable position of liquidity.
Net interest income rose 8.4% on the year in 2017, while net fee income saw a 1.2% year-on-year decline due to pressure on banking operations fees.
BRD Group kept improving its operational performance, as its gross operating result grew 5.9% on the year in 2017, after the adjustment for non-recurring items. The cost-to-income ratio from the core activity, on a group level, reached 52.0% in 2017, compared with 52.4% a year before, the group’s financial report also reads.
The loan portfolio quality kept improving, with the non-performing loan (NPL) rate falling to 6.6% at the end of 2017, compared with 10.5% at the end of 2016. The coverage ratio of NPLs stayed solid at 74.2%, compared with 76.6% at the end of 2016.
Net profit reached RON1.415 billion in 2017, up 85.3% in annual dynamic, leading to a return on equity (ROE) of 20.1% in 2017, compared with 11.8% a year before.