CEC targets 15m-euro profit this year

CEC (The Romanian Savings Bank) posted a 24 million-RON (7 million-euro) gross profit in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 60% against the same period in 2006. “CEC’s budget for 2007 targets a 50 million-RON profit. Given the current trend, I think we will exceed this target,” Eugen Radulescu, chairman of the bank, told a press conference. In the first quarter of 2006, the bank made a 3.5 million-euro net profit, after the first three months of 2005 had generated losses. The increase in CEC’s profitability was fuelled by the significant increase in the volume of credits granted to clients, which also brought higher revenues from interests. The volume of credits granted to the clients increased by 60% against March last year reaching 3.5 billion RON (one billion euros). Compared with March 2005, the volume saw a fivefold increase. The bank supplemented the funding offered to individual clients as well as to companies over the course of last year, by positioning itself towards the lower end of the market in terms of loan costs.