BT: We are focusing on quality of our credit portfolio

Priorities listed by Banca Transilvania officials for 2009 are risk management, the quality of the credit portfolio and liquidity indicators, without any specific growth targets being mentioned, according to a bank release that reveals its financial results for 2008. In the last quarter of 2008, the volume of credits granted by Banca Transilvania went down 3.5% in RON, to 11 billion RON (2.75 billion euros). In fact, the bank set up provisions worth 81 million RON (20 million euros) in the fourth quarter of the year, in a bid to protect itself against risks that could emerge in the coming period. “We intend to be cautious, so we have and will continue to maintain a strict provision policy,” said Robert Rekkers, CEO of Banca Transilvania. According to BT, this year’s focus will be on developing the bank’s four divisions – retail, corporate, SMEs and the doctors division. The bank has in the past years withdrawn from the insurance sector, but still has leasing, consumer finance and factoring operations. Last year BT collected 87,5 million euros from the sale of its stake in Asiban.