“We have about EUR40 billion loans granted in Austria, at a population of 8 million people,” Treichl told the news conference after the announcement of the 2016 results.
Erste has EUR21 billion loans in Czech Republic, at a population of 10 million, while in Romania it has EUR7 billion loans at a population of 20 million. What country would one want to be in? What country has the highest growth potential?, he added.
Treichl is happy Erste managed an almost EUR5 billion increase in loans in 2016, a performance not many banks can boast. BCR saw an increase of 8.8 billion lei (EUR1.9 billion) on the lending segment in 2016.
The problem of every bank in Europe is that it is unable to grant more loans, considering companies are reluctant to make new investments and individuals prefer to keep their money in deposits rather than borrow, as they remember what happened during the crisis.
Treichl says he is not concerned about the talks in Romania about nationalism or multinationals. Erste is used to that, to political challenges. What he means is that BCR is a Romanian bank, the main lender of the Romanian economy and 99% of the customers are Romanian, both individuals and companies. He does not think Romanian politicians can mess with that.
The Erste CEO says he is no longer interested in buying a bank in Romania. Assets yes, banks no, he said.
In 2016, BCR recovered some of the market share lost during the crisis, going to 17% from 15% in 2015.
BCR posted more than RON1 billion (EUR233 million) net profit in 2016, almost one fifth of the entire Erste profit, EUR1.26 billion.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)