Alpha Bank’s Executive President is optimistic about the evolution of Romania’s economy in the second half of this year, unlike the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is forecasting a four percent decline, but Oprescu added that, if the economy performs badly, banks will be the first to suffer. The banker indicated that interests on lei-denominated deposits will drop to a single digit by year-end, considering that there are currently interest rates on the market exceeding even an annual 15 percent.
Alpha Bank is one of the nine banks which made a commitment to the IMF to maintain total exposure of the mother-group on the Romanian market, and Oprescu, like many other bankers, is looking for options to place funds, considering that lending shows no sign of rebounding. Alpha Bank does not have to increase its share capital following the stress-tests conducted by BNR, as the lender’s solvency indicator, according to Romanian Accounting Standards (RAS), is 14 percent.
The lender posted gross profi t worth €21.1 million in the first quarter of 2009, and registered a 56.3 percent year-on-year increase in provisions, at €5.6 mln. The bank’s loan portfolio amounted to €4.1 billion at the end of March, up 36 percent compared to 31 March 2008, but slightly below the €4.17 bln level registered at the end of 2008. Th e volume of corporate loans reached €2.96 bln, a 30 percent rise over the first quarter of last year, but similar to the level posted at the end of 2008.
