BRD picks up speed on RON lending

BRD, the second-largest bank in the system, last year lost three percent of its share of the RON lending market, from 24% to 21%, but picked up speed on the segment of domestic currency lending to companies, gaining two percent of the market, from 16% to 18%.

On the other hand, BRD's share of the market of foreign currency loans went down both on the retail and on the corporate segment. The bank had 13% of the market of individual clients in December 2007, and 12% in 2008, while its share of the corporate segment market fell from 16% to 15%.

The increase in RON lending to corporate clients also showed in the growing share of corporate financing in BRD's portfolio from 50% in 2007 to 52% in 2008. Corporate clients also accounted for the largest share of the deposit portfolio again, 54%, compared with 55% a year ago.

Still, given that deposits only rose by 6% while lending increased by 27%, 2008 is the first year for BRD when loans substantially outpaced resources attracted from the domestic market.

Therefore, the loan/deposit ratio stood at almost 120% last year, after deposits were still ahead of loans by a small margin at the end of 2007. The situation deteriorated especially in the fourth quarter, partly because of the withdrawals of deposits following the drop in confidence in banks caused by the international crisis. Nine months into the year, the credit/deposit ratio had already reached 108%.

Ziarul Financiar