CEC Bank Profit Falls 40.62% In H1

Six months through the year, CEC Bank reported a 40.62% year-on-year decrease in gross profit to 19 million RON. The bank"s assets gained 46.69% year-on-year to 18.13 million RON. The value of provisions increased by 50.66% in the first six months of the year to 113 million RON, according to a press release from the bank.

CEC Bank reported a 32.3% year-on-year increase in the value of disbursed loans to 8.87 billion RON amid a 65.7% increase in the value of business loans to 3.57 billion RON and a 16.5% increase in the value of individual loans to 5.29 billion RON.

The bank reported an overall value of deposits of 12.51 billion RON as of 30 June 2009, up by 22.7% year-on-year. Deposits made by business customers between June 2008 and June 2009 increased by 129.8% to 1.30 billion RON, while deposits made by individual customers gained 16.4% to 11.20 bullion RON.

The solvency indicator, calculated at the end of H1, is 18.89%, while the ratio between loans and deposits is 71.20%. The bank also reported to have a network of 1,380 branches employing 6,584 persons to service 2.75 million customers. CEC Bank also has a network of 760 ATMs and 713,850 active debit/credit cards.

• SME financing, CEC"s priority

"The bank"s main priority in the first half of the year was to identify projects prepared by small- and medium-sized enterprises, farmers, authorities and local public administrations that could were eligible for financing. The bank issued 2,160 new loans worth 878 million RON," President Radu Gratian Ghetea wrote in the press release.

Of the total number of new loans, 1,012 loans worth 574 million RON were disbursed to small- and medium-sized enterprises, while 1,144 loans worth some 300 million RON went to farmers. According to the press release, the bank has so far financed approximately 2,114 projects eligible for EU grants in the aggregated value of over 578 million RON.

CEC Bank managed to improve their market share in the first six months of the year to 5.28% on the asset segment, 4.40% on the loan segment and 7.42% on the deposit segment. The bank offers a base interest rate of 11.9% p.a. for business deposits and 11.5% p.a. for individual deposits.

For the time being, CEC Bank pays interest between 10% and 10.5% p.a. for RON-denominated deposits of the individual customers and between 8.5% and 9% for the RON-denominated deposits of the business customers. The prime rate charged on loans is 11.9% p.a. for business customers and 11.5% p.a. for individual customers. The base interest on EUR-denominated loans has been reduced by half a percentage point to 7.25% p.a.

Plans for the near future include a focus on lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises, farmers, local public administrations and bankable projects that contribute to the sustainable development of the economy. The bank will also focus on helping customers access EU funding and the State-driven First Home and First Silo programme designed to support individuals to buy a home and farmers to obtain better conditions for storing their grains, Ghetea said.