The largest three banks in Romania posted about 3 billion lei (EUR659 million) profit in 2016, more than two thirds of the profit of the entire Romanian banking system. The cumulated profits of the six large banks to have announced their 2016 results stood at more than RON4 billion.
Banca Transilvania, which climbed to second place by assets last year, posted the highest profit of the entire banking system in Romania, RON1.2 billion. The BCR group, which includes the biggest local lender, posted RON1.04 billion profit, while BRD-SocGen posted RON728.3 million, its highest after 2009.
ING Bank ranked fourth with RON474 million net profit, followed by Raiffeisen Bank Romania, EUR100 million (about RON450 million), and UniCredit, more than RON260 million.
The entire banking system posted almost RON4.3 billion net income in 2016, the second highest after the start of the economic crisis. A number of 27 banks posted profit last year, RON4.7 billion in all, while ten lenders were in the red, posting RON450.4 million losses.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)