Bruynseels, BCR head: We’ll be facing another extremely rough 12 months

The banking system is likely to end this year in the red in line with RAS as loan portfolios will further deteriorate in the second half of 2010, and banks will be forced to set up new provisions to cover risks, states Dominic Bruynseels, the executive chairman of BCR, the biggest bank on the market. In Q2 BCR saw the level of bad loans reach 15.4% in the retail and SME portfolio, up 1.5% from the first three months. BCR group, including the biggest domestic bank, in H1 generated net income worth 245.5m RON (almost 59m euros), down over 11% from a year ago, but in IFRS. Differences to RAS figures are considerable. BCR representatives chose not to disclose RAS figures. At the end of June, the banking system piled up losses for the second month in a row, of above 50m euros, as the gains of some big banks did not cover the other players’ losses. BCR head expects a new wave of overdue payments starting September, after people return from holidays, and does not see a rebound earlier than next year. Instead, BCR official says that on the corporate segment the situation is quite good. He specified the corporate area is the most profitable business segment for BCR not only as regards lending, but also the other products and services.