“After four years of crisis, most of the medium companies have stopped exporting and they face liquidity shortages and have problems in paying back their loans,” BRD’s chairman and chief executive officer Philippe Lhotte told reporters at the presentation of the bank’s 2012 financial results.
BRD, Romania’s second largest bank by assets, Wednesday reported a loss of 332 million lei (EUR74.5 million) in 2012 versus profit a year earlier, hurt by a 61.6% hike in risk costs due to adverse macroeconomic environment and a tighter collateral valuation process.
Lhotte said the bank’s results were also affected by a series of frauds uncovered over the past years, which caused a combined loss of EUR180 million for 2011 and 2012.
BRD reported non-performing corporate loans of 33.6% of the total loans in the segment in 2012. In the retail segment, the NPL ratio is of 7.8%.
Despite the negative financial result in 2012, BRD doesn’t plan major personnel layoffs or office restructuring in 2013, Lhotte said.
“2012 was a one-time episode in BRD’s evolution and we don’t plan to shut down units or collective layoffs,” he told reporters.