OTP Bank Romania reports profit of 17 million RON for the first semester

OTP Bank Romania has registered during the first six months of the year an after tax profit of 17 million RON, lower than the result of the first half of 2019, having doubled the risk costs in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Despite the severe pandemic situation, OTP Bank Romania continues strong growth as both loans and deposits grew around 16-17% Y-o-Y. The bank achieved 17M RON profit in H1 even after creating RON 58,9 million extraordinary provisions for unforseeable impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Transformation projects have not stopped. We recently opened a new branch in Pipera and we continue the process of hiring new colleagues for further expansion”, said Gyula Fatér, CEO OTP Bank România.

Operating profit of the first six months of the year increased to RON 92 million, following the increase of 14% in total income, compared to the same time frame of last year; at the same time, operating expenses grew by 18%, due to implementing the organic development program of OTP Bank Romania, started in 2019.

The net interest income improved in the first semester by 18% y-o-y. The growth was supported by the dynamic growth of the performing loan portfolio.

The performing loan volumes, FX-adjusted, increased by 18% y-o-y, supported by SMEs lending (+27%), robust mortgage demand (+18%), and corporate lending increase (+16%).

Lending activity was atypical in the first half of the year as effect of Covid-19 pandemic; after the dynamic increase in the first quarter followed the slowdown of economic activity in April-May and then the bounce back starting June. Compared to the first semester of 2019, loans for legal entities customers increased by +21% while the new sales of real estate loans have decreased by -14% and consumer loans by -21%.