BCR sets up over 1bn-euro bad loan provisions

BCR group, including the biggest bank in terms of assets, in the second quarter of this year generated net income worth 245.5m RON (almost 59m euros), down more than 11% from a year ago and relatively constant against Q1, 2010. Over the past year, quarterly figures have posted broad fluctuations, mainly triggered by the setting up of bad loan provisions. Also, at group level BCR’s figures are hammered by the leasing company’s losses. In H1, the group’s net income reached 488.5m RON (117m euros), down 19.5% from the same period of 2009. After the Q1 decline, the volume of loans released by BCR rose in Q2 by over 1.7bn RON, to some 47.7bn RON (10.9bn euros) on corporate lending. The weight of bad loans on the retail and SME segment in Q2 climbed by 1.5% from Q1, to 15.4%, the highest level among Erste subsidiaries, except the Ukrainian one. BCR in Q2 spent over 518m RON on risk provisions, up 13.5% from Q1, getting to a total of almost 975m RON (233m euros) for H1. Half-year, provision costs rose by 24.5%, with the volume of this buffer for possible lending losses topping 4.5bn RON (above 1bn euros against the late June exchange rate), double from a year ago.