The leader in the growth ranking is Raiffeisen Bank. Raiffeisen Bank’s net interest income in Romania went up 22% in lei to 349 million lei (EUR75 million) at the end of March. Romania was the country with the highest growth in interest income of all the countries of the group in the first quarter.
Romania was also where the group achieved its highest growth in fee income, over 10%.
Second in the ranking is UniCredit bank, over 19% rise in net interest income and BRD-SocGen, almost 15%.
The significant rise in interest income is because of the rise in ROBOR, the reference index for leu loan interest rates, in the past few months. Another factor, though to a smaller extent, is the increase in lending volumes. Interest income is the main stream of income for the local banks and accounts for two thirds of their income.
“The increase in the banks’ interest incomes was to be expected, considering the significant rise in interest on the market. In other words, their higher income is the result of the rise in ROBOR,” says financial analyst Dragos Cabat.
“Banks always win when there’s inflation. I expect the share of interest income in the total income to increase.”
The three-month ROBOR started rising last fall and is expected to reach 3% by yearend. It stood at 2.82% per annum on Wednesday, compared with barely 1% last fall.
Banca Transilvania posted the highest net interest income, more than RON518 million, some 14% higher than in the first quarter of 2017. Its main rival, the BCR group, posted RON467 million interest income, up about 8% on the year-ago period. (EUR1=RON4.6399)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)