On March 31, 2018, the bank had 753 branches, compared with 810 branches on March 31, 2017 and 760 branches on December 31, 2017, ensuring the distribution of its products and services throughout the whole country. The bank’s number of active individual customers rose by approximately 33,000 on March 31, 2018, compared to March 31, 2017, reaching 2.18 million individual customers.
The bank’s total assets stood at RON54 billion, up 8.7% from March 2017.
BRD Group, which includes BRD – Groupe Société Générale S.A., BRD Sogelease IFN SA, BRD Finance IFN SA and BRD Asset Management SAI SA, registered a net profit of RON414 million in the first quarter of 2018, up 26% from RON330 million in the same period in 2017, due to solid income, stable operating expenses and positive cost of risk.
BRD Group’s net banking income reached RON724 million in the first quarter of 2018, up 11.4% from the same period in 2017, rising on all main categories of income. The group’s total assets rose 8,9% on the year to RON55.957 billion during the analysed period.
“The first quarter of 2018 was very dynamic as shown by the continuous increase in loans, deposits and transaction volumes, which, together with the favorable interest rate context, translated into a double-digit increase in net banking income. Looking forward, BRD will continue to improve customer experience and satisfaction by further investing in digitalization and ongoing developments of its business model”, said Francois Bloch, Chief Executive Officer of BRD Groupe Societe Generale.
Net interest income increased at double digit rate (+14.2% year-on-year), driven by positive volume effect and the rising trend in interest rates. Net fees and commissions income increased by 5.2% on higher volumes of transactions and positive contribution from custody and depository services.
The number of active customers rose by 37,000, net loans climbed 5% to RON30.4 billion and deposits increased by 6%. Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio decreased to 6.2% on March 31, 2018, versus 10.3% on March 31, 2017. In parallel, the coverage ratio remained solid at 75.4%, compared to 77.4% on March 31, 2017 (all ratios according to EBA methodology).
On the retail segment, the 7.8% advance of net loans outstanding was driven by the favorable dynamics of individuals’ unsecured consumer and housing loans. Loan production for individuals reached RON1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2018, up 9.0% year-on-year, pushed by increasing production on housing loans, up 68% year-on-year compared with the first quarter of 2017, to RON517 million.
On the non-retail segment, net loans outstanding slightly increased by 0.9% year-on-year in the first three months of 2018, with strong performance on large corporate clients (+6.9% year-on-year) fully offsetting the contraction of the SMEs loan portfolio.
Deposits to customers increased on both segments, retail and non-retail, with the total deposit base reaching RON44.3 billion, up 7.0% compared to March 31, 2017, with increased inflows in current accounts. Retail deposits growth reached 8.5% versus March 31, 2017 (of which current accounts were up by 27% year-on-year), while for non-retail deposits the increase was 4.4% versus March 31, 2017 (of which current accounts were up by 2.7% year-on-year)
The stock of internet and mobile banking contracts for individual customers reached approximately 1.44 million at the end of March 2018, 19% more year-on-year. The number of MyBRD Mobile subscribers grew 43%.
The net loans to deposits ratio reached 65.5% on March 31, 2018, from 65.4% on December 31, 2017, and 66.3% on March 31, 2017 for the Bank and 68.6% for the Group, including financial leasing receivables (same level on December 31, 2016 and 69.2% on March 31, 2017).
BRD held a market share of 12.5% of total assets at December 31, 2017.
In 2017, BRD-SocGen reported a record net profit of RON1.38 billion, the bank’s best annual result, nearly double the level reached in 2016. Its gross profit stood at RON1.63 billion.