The top ten players in the banking system made an almost 600 million-euro net profit together in 2006, yet the growth was slower than in the previous years.
Four leading banks even posted lower profits than in the previous year, while only two players achieved a higher profit increase than in 2005.
The profits made by the top nine players in the system last year total a little more than 580 million euros.
ABN Amro, the tenth largest bank in terms of assets (according to the NBR), does not release local results. According to the data provided to the Finance Ministry, the bank had made almost 10 million euros in net profit in 2005.
If taking into account the income of Volksbank (the eleventh largest bank in terms of assets) last year, the cumulated profit of the top players stands at 594 million euros.
With the increase in competition, especially from smaller yet very ambitious players, the major players in the system found themselves forced to make costly investments to keep developing their operations.
BCR posted the highest profit in the system; the bank also has the largest assets of all the banks (13.3 billion euros last December). BCR posted 214.5 million-euro net profit in 2006, an increase of 16% on 2005. Its 2005 profit had gone up by merely 2% in euros.
The profitability ranking resembles the asset ranking. The second-highest profit in the system was posted by the French at BRD-Groupe Soci?t? G?n?rale. The net income amounted to 186 million euros last year, an increase of 19% on the previous year.
The profit growth pace, however, was not as spectacular as it was in 2005, when it had leaped 72%.
Raiffeisen Bank, the third player in the system, managed to increase its net income by a mere 2% in 2006, to 53 million euros. The profit had gone up by 84% in the previous year.
The players that saw their profits go down last year include the branches of the Italians at UniCredit. Pressured by the costs of a three-bank merger, the cumulated profit of UniCredit Romania and HVB-Tiriac Bank fell 7% to 50 million euros.
The merger, set to create the UniCredit Tiriac Bank will be completed in midyear.
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