THE CONFESSIONS OF BCR CEO THOMAS SPURNY AT THE END OF HIS TERM: "I don't think we've made any legal mistakes, just moral ones"

Known as a harsh and ruthless banker, who took drastic action to achieve his restructuring program, Thomas Spurny, the current CEO of the Romanian Commercial Bank (BCR), had a moment of sensitivity at an event held at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, making some amazing statements concerning the banking system. Perhaps this moment of sincerity also happened because Spurny is going to step down as BCR CEO, returning to the Czech Republic to take over the management of GE Money Bank Czech Republic, part of American giant GE.

Starting off from the idea that the whole industry relies on trust and persuasion, the banker said the following: "I don't think we've made legal mistakes, but we have made moral ones. I think that the people who are unhappy with the bank are currently being treated completely differently than they used to be in the past".

He also warned that there is a need for a change in the way the relationship between the bank and customers works: "If you go into a bank and you are not a mathematician, nor a financial expert, you will be faced with many terms that won't have any meaning to you; we need to clearly emphasize the risks that people can face when they are doing business with us".

The bank's mission is to buy risk and to sell trust, Thomas Spurny further said.

Over the last three years, the bank ran into unprecedented economic difficulties, due to the fact that part of the population has come to the point where they are unable to repay their loans, he said, and he reminded that BCR recently launched an offer for all those who took out guaranteed loans. That concerns the application of a reduced interest rate, so that in the end, the installments would get discounts of 15% to 40%.

Mr. Spurny said that "Without banking intermediation, one cannot have economic growth, one cannot have prosperity, social justice, civil society".

Starting off from October 1st, the position of BCR CEO, currently held by Thomas Spurny, will be taken over by Sergiu Manea.

• Ionuţ Stanimir, BCR: "The bank continues its efforts to deal with its historic portfolio of non-performing loans at an accelerated pace"

BCR continues its efforst to resolve its portfolio of non-performing loans at an accelerated rate, Ionuţ Stanimir, the spokesperson of the bank told us yesterday.

His statement comes as in the foreign media, information has appeared according to which Banca Comercială Română has abandoned the plan to sell non-performing loans of approximately 2.7 billion Euros, due to the bids that were too low.

Sources close to the situation, quoted by Bloomberg and reproduced by Agerpres, said that Blackstone Group and Lone Star Funds were the only bidders for the portfolio put up for sale at BCR, which consists of real estate loans and some corporate loans.

Erste's risk director, Andreas Gottschling, said, in August, that the Austrian group would take under consideration only bids with a "very modest" discount compared to the book value of the non-performing loans, once it puts them up for sale.

BCR, the biggest bank in Romania, saw a net profit of 603.4 million lei (135.7 mil. Euros) in the first semester of this year, up from losses of 276 million lei in H1 2014, after the provision costs were cut from 1.3 billion lei to 26.2 million lei, amid the cleanup of the portfolio.

The non-performing loans ratio fell to 23.1%, from 29.3% in June 2014, on the back of the overall drop of the loan portfolio driven by recoveries, sales of non-performing loan portfolios and write-offs.