CEC Bank closed 2018 with a pre-tax profit of 432.97 million lei, the best financial result in the last 11 years, the bank said in a statement released on Monday.
Loans to legal entities were 13.1 pct up year-on-year, far above the banking system's overall performance, which was of just 6.8 pct, the cited source said.
CEC Bank's loans to individuals were also 7.3 pct higher in 2018 compared to the previous year.
The amount of new loans granted in 2018 advanced by about 5.34 pct to approximately 7 billion lei.
"However, the lending activity registered a much higher growth rate than might be concluded based on balance sheet figures, as loans to agricultural customers are granted and reimbursed in full during the year, and loans approved in 2018 and left unspent by the end of the year are not reflected in the balance sheet. By continuing the policy of supporting the absorption of European funds, the bank financed until the end of 2018 a number of 48,046 projects eligible for accessing such funding, with the grants totaling 13,932 million lei," the statement reads.
Deposits of non-bank customers were up 1.1 pct in 2018 from the year before.
The non-performing exposure ratio was 6.01 pct at the end of December last year, down 3.09 percentage points compared to the figure recorded in December 2017.