Lending conditions remained the same on the corporate and retail segment in the first quarter, as banks were reluctant to ask the central bank to approve more relaxed conditions. Only mortgage loans saw somewhat more lenient conditions.
A significant relaxation for the corporate loan granting terms was expected for as late as the second quarter, but it remains to be seen whether it materialized or not.
BCR, the largest bank in the system, continued the deleveraging process in the first quarter but in mid April announced bold plans to bounce back, which are yet to be confirmed and competitors met with skepticism.
The second largest lender, BRD, stabilized its net portfolio at some RON27.7 billion, narrowing the gap to BCR to less than RON8.9 billion.
Without any substantial growth in new loans, BCR and BRD are seeing some of the highest non-performing loan ratios on the market.
On the other hand, Banca Transilvania continued its steady growth since the beginning of the crisis, reaching RON17 billion net loan volume. It is almost RON20 billion behind the market leader and more than RON10 billion behind BRD.
Fourth leading bank by assets, UniCredit Tiriac Bank, saw half a billion lei or 2.6% decline in its gross loan portfolio to RON18.3 billion compared with the end of last year. The bank does not reveal its NPL ratio and did not publish any information on its first quarter provisions.
State-owned CEC Bank has its own financial results publication pace. It barely announced its 2013 results a month ago, when other banks were already announcing their first quarter financials, so there is no information on how it did in terms of loans.
Raiffeisen, too, only reveals the figures published by its parent bank in Vienna for the first quarter, which are different from the local figures. Bogdan Popa, vice-president Financial Controlling and Accounting Division, said the bank granted more than EUR300 million worth of new loans in the first quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International figures show the loan volume in Romania increased by EUR52 million (1.2%) to EUR4.3 billion in the first quarter. NPL ratio stood at 11.2%.
Greek-held Alpha Bank posted a EUR59 million decline in the gross loan portfolio in the first quarter, to EUR2.87 billion. The NPL ratio stood at 14.4%.
Another Greek-held group, Eurobank, which owns Bancpost in Romania, saw a EUR50 million decline in the gross loan portfolio in the first quarter. The net portfolio (gross loans minus provisions) was even EUR63 million lower, reaching EUR2.2 billion. It did not reveal its NPL ratio.
Volksbank and ING did not publish their first quarter financials.
As long as the major banks are unable to stabilize their portfolio, the market is going down, so the private lending volume dropped to RON218 billion in the first quarter. The NPL ratio therefore remains high as the reporting base keeps declining.
Lending showed encouraging signs in April, when it rose 0.2% on March, but the sound return into positive territory will take a while. Bankers could be more interested in portfolio cleanups as recommended by the central bank than anything else over the coming period, so a true lending reboot could only happen after the cleanup is done and sound basis for growth has been established.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)