Banca Romaneasca doubles loan portfolio

Banca Romaneasca, the local branch of the National Bank of Greece – one of the largest Greek financial groups, managed to double its portfolio of credits last year to 1.53 billion euros. The bank’s net profit went up 14%, to 15 million euros last year, from 14 million euros in 2006, according to data published by the parent bank. The operating income saw a somewhat slower increase (8%) and reached 12 million euros. The bank managed to accelerate the growth rate of granted funding to 107%, after the volume increased 68% in 2006. In real terms, non-governmental lending climbed 50% last year, in RON. “We will try to preserve the growth rate this year. We target a balanced increase on the retail and on the corporate segment,” Andreas Maragkoudakis, general manager of Banca Romaneasca, told ZF. The increase in profit was aided by the rapid increase in operating revenues, which climbed 43% last year to 72 million euros.