Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Romania to relax mortgage lending norms in 2-3 months, official says

Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Romania, the local unit of Italy's second-biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, will apply a new system to grant mortgages in the next 2-3 months and will release a new credit card, according to the head of bank's division of retail business development, Fabio de Grazia.

The lender plans to change the way of calculating clients' scoring for mortgages and to launch a new credit card as this segment bears high potential taking into consideration the current conditions on the market.

The representatives of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank also mentioned the lender will cut ribbon for only few units this year, after it doubled the network last year. The lender registered a 34 percent annual increase in its operating profit last year, while the credit portfolio advanced by 63 percent.

The bank's operating profit amounted last year to 35 million lei and its assets rose by 56 percent, to 2.79 billion lei. The credit portfolio reached 1.832 billion lei at the end of last year.

Net revenues also increased by 75 percent, to 149 million lei and the capital swelled three-fold, from 166 million lei to 543 million lei, through cash injections operated by the mother-bank.

The lender's staff rose too by 40 percent last year.

The Italian Intesa Sanpaolo group is the fifth biggest lender in Europe and has about 20 million clients worldwide.

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