He did not reveal the exact figure. “There is a figure but I don’t want to share it with you now.”
BCR needs to clean up its NPL portfolio as soon as possible to be able to focus on growing its business and lending, Sikela added.
It sold EUR1.2 billion worth of NPLs at a price of less than 10% to a consortium led by Deutsche Bank at the end of last year. It was the biggest NPL set sold in Romania ever. The lender had previously sold EUR800 million NPLs in two deals in 2014.
BCR is the biggest bank in Romania and was the worst hit by the crisis, with one third of its loan portfolio turning sour.
Its owner, Erste group, has one billion euros available for new loans in the areas where it operates in Central and Eastern Europe this year.
Jozef Sikela says he hopes a large part of this billion euros will go to Romania, unless regulation issues come up. Erste is not worried about the economy, only about potential regulation issues, he added.
Romania’s economic prospects are good and BCR wants to boost corporate lending this year. The lender saw a double-digit growth rate of its lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and single-digit growth of its lending to large companies in 2015, Sikela said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)