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Banca Transilvania Group posted a net consolidated profit of 1.257 billion lei, of which Banca Transilvania's bottom-line result is 1.219 billion lei (the figure includes the expenses with the integration of Bancpost), BT said in a release this Wednesday.
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The bank's operating profit increased to 1.80 billion lei. BT's 2017 net result was 1.185 billion lei.
The bank extended last year 196,000 corporate and retail loans, with loans to Romanian companies amounting to over 9 billion lei.
For BT, 2018 meant the continuation of responsible organic growth, major investments in the customers' digital experience, the integration of Bancpost and the onset for the business model replication at Victoriabank, in the Republic of Moldova, the release states.
Customer deposits reached 65.16 billion lei, of which 43.34 billion lei are individual deposits and 21.82 billion lei are corporate deposits.
The assets managed by Banca Transilvania Financial Group reached 77.9 billion lei at the end of 2018, and loans advanced to 38.02 billion lei.
"Banca Transilvania continued to be the most active player in the banking sector, supporting the Romanian economy, due to continuous capital boosts and to the relevant expertise gathered over its 25 years of existence, here, in Romania. In all these years, we have constantly grown the bank's capital base through yearly profit accumulation, cash capital increases from shareholders and subordinated debt instruments, so as to be able to maintain the alert lending pace across all customer types: from established SMEs to start-ups and the population. As the largest Romanian financial group, we are aware of our responsibility towards the local economy, and towards our over 3 million customers, out of whom 700,000 are beneficiaries of loans, as well as of our duty to over 31,000 Romanian individual shareholders, stock exchange investors and the 7 million indirect shareholders who hold stakes through Pillar II pension fund," said Horia Ciorcila, Chairman of the BT Board of Directors.
At the meeting this Tuesday, the BT Board of Directors decided to propose to the General Shareholders Meetings due this April the distribution of cash dividends worth 818.121.781 lei (gross), representing a gross dividend per share of 0.17 lei. Another proposal is to capitalize the difference up to the distributable profit of 2018.
The bank granted last year 65,000 fixed interest loans to individuals. BT has 3.7 million cards in its portfolio, accounting for 21 pct market share in terms of issued cards in Romania, the release reads.
Mortgage and home equity loans amount to 11 billion lei and loans to SMEs' amount to 15.5 billion lei.
As many as 125 BT units were rebranded and refurbished last year. The bank also invested 23 million lei in communities, education and sports through over 1,000 social responsibility projects.
"Massive investments in digitisation generate visible positive effects on the business: almost 200 million transactions were performed last year with BT cards. Every second, 6 transactions with BT cards are being performed. There are 475,000 credit cards in the portfolio of BT Group, which generate approximately 35 pct of credit card transactions at domestic retailers. More than 60,000 transactions are being performed daily with BT credit cards; Banca Transilvania runs 50,000 POSs, accounting for 25 pct of the total number of POS installed in Romania," reads the document.
NPE according to EBA was 4.97 pct as of December 31, 2018, and the NPE coverage ratio according to EBA standards is 94 pct. If collaterals are also considered, the coverage rate is 133 pct, the bank said.
The bank's total CAR (the profit for 2018 excluded) is at 18.59 pct, and stands at 21.53 pct with the profit included.
In anticipation of a decision regarding the tax on bank assets introduced through Ordinance 114/2018, Banca Transilvania says that the banks' capital and competencies have been built over time and can be quickly lost without proper investments, and Romania needs a strong banking system and higher lending growth rates, to overcome the gaps to the Western countries.
"The decrease of the profit available for capitalization will slow down the development of the Romanian banking system and will affect economic growth. However, as a Romanian bank and company, BT will stand by its customers, so that they be as less as possible affected by the
potential tax on assets," the cited source concludes.
AGERPRES .
