Eurobank reaches 6bn-euro assets in Romania

Greek Eurobank, the majority shareholder of Bancpost, announced that assets held in Romania climbed by 25% to a little above 6bn euros last year. The loan volume rose by 27%, to 3.95bn euros. Compared with September, though, in December loans were 189m euros lower. Eurobank on Wednesday published its figures in Athens and data regarding Romanian operations reflect the operations of Bancpost, but also of the other nine domestic subsidiaries. Deposits the Greek bank attracted climbed faster than loans last year, by 72%, to 2.4bn euros. The December volume equals the one reported last September. “We’ll be particularly careful to maintain a comfortable liquidity level. We’ll pay the market price for deposits, but we’ll not engage in a competition of unreasonable interest rates,” states Mihai Bogza, chairman and CEO of Bancpost. “One of this year’s priorities will be a cautious loan portfolio management, we’ll respectively try to identify clients in trouble and where we see there’s willingness to pay the instalments, we’ll help them overcome the crisis,” says Bogza. The Greeks announced Romanian operations last year brought them net income worth 27.3m euros, slightly down from the 2007 level, of 29m euros. Provisions eroded net gains, while operating income doubled. “We’ll try to cut costs along all categories (…) because we know provision expenses will hurt our figures,” Bogza also says. Bancpost added 69 offices last year, reaching a total of 293.