Gabriels, RBS: Market is still challenging, but we can find good clients, too

RBS Bank Romania generated net income worth 42.1m RON (a little above 10m euros) in the first quarter, almost one third of profits posted in the entire 2009. In 2009, net income climbed to 130m RON (almost 31m euros, in line with Romanian accounting standards), more than double the 2008 level in RON. The increase came despite the rising provision expenses, which hurt the entire market. “The market is still challenging. We are in recession, but there are also good companies wanting to make investments,” says Johan Gabriels, chairman of RBS Romania. Gabriels says that provision growth has slowed down since the beginning of the year, especially in retail. RBS has around 2,000 corporate clients, 30 of whom have problems and are included on a special list, with their performance being monthly monitored, instead of every six months as the standard frequency. “We can see that increasingly fewer (individual i.e.) clients have trouble paying their instalments,” Gabriels says. He added, though, that loan demand was showing no signs of picking up as clients were probably more cautious for the time being. Yet, RBS plans to boost its assets this year.