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TOP 100
banks
Romania’s BCR shines again
in TOP 100 banks ranking
By Velizar Uzunov
Romania’s Banca Comerciala Romana
(BCR) led the TOP 100 banks
for the second year running in 2011,
while the second and the third one
in the 2010 ranking switched positions
last year.
All banks in the top 10 in the 2011 ranking except
one – NLB at number three – saw their
assets rise. Some 60% of the banks in the 2011
ranking increased their asset value.
In terms of net profi t, 40% of banks registered
an increase, compared to about 25% in
2010. Lenders, however, remain cautious in
view of the ongoing crisis, which forces them
to increase provisions and puts pressure on
their balance sheets.
The highest net profi t posted by a bank included
in the SEE TOP 100 Banks 2011 ranking
was 174.8 million euro, while the biggest loss
was 282.2 million euro.
The leader in the ranking, BCR, had total assets
of 17.1 billion euro at the end of last year,
5.63% up from 2010. The bank’s net profi t,
however, decreased by more than 66% to 56.7
million euro. BCR attributed the fall to lower
net operating income and high provisioning
in corporate lending as the generally diffi cult
2011 and especially the unexpected economic
slowdown in the second half of the year affected
the business and income of the bank’s
customers and had a negative impact on
their transactions with the bank.
Croatia’s Zagrebacka Banka (ZABA) ranked
second in 2011, with total assets of 13.8 billion
euro at the end of the year, replacing Slovenia’s
NLB. For a second year running ZABA
posted the highest net profi t among the TOP
100 banks - 174.8 million euro, up from 173.5
million euro in 2010.
Zagrebacka said that its solid fi nancial performance
was largely due to increased income
from lending to corporate clients and
the public sector, along with improved cost
and process effi ciency.
NLB, Slovenia’s largest bank, dropped to the
third position in the 2011 ranking from the
second one in 2010 after leading the list in
each of 2008 and 2009. The bank’s total assets
fell 6.15% to 12.98 billion euro, while its
net loss swelled to 233.2 million euro from
183.4 million euro in 2010.
According to NLB’s annual report, the higher
bank's net loss was due to the negative effects
of the operations of subsidiaries, which
do not form the strategic core of the NLB
Group, as well as to higher loan provisioning.
The bank attributed the fall in the value of its
assets to the discontinuation of certain unprofi
table activities and the withdrawal from
certain markets.
Romanian bank BRD, a unit of French banking
group Societe Generale, kept its fourth
position with total assets of 11.3 billion euro.
BRD had the fourth highest net profi t in 2011
of 108.7 million euro, down from 232.5 million
euro a year earlier.
Romania leads the TOP 100 banks ranking by
the number of entries with 21, followed by
Bulgaria with 18 and Slovenia with 17. In 2010,
Romania gave away the fi rst place to Bulgaria
and Serbia due to the worsened economic
conditions in the country but managed to regain
the top position with seven new entries
in 2011.
Serbia had 16 lenders in the 2011 ranking,
down from 18 in 2010. Croatia and Bosnia have
nine and seven, respectively. The number of
Macedonian, Albanian and Moldovan representatives
remained unchanged from the
2010 ranking, at three, fi ve and two, respectively.
Montenegro has two banks in the 2011
ranking, compared to three a year earlier.
Bulgaria’s Corporate Commercial Bank AD advanced
the most in the 2011 ranking, jumping
11 places to the 35th spot. The lender’s assets
grew 49.8% to 2.067 billion euro, while its net
profi t fell by some 18% to 31.2 million euro.
Just like in 2010, Bulgarian Development Bank
was the second-best advancer in the 2011
ranking, this time with a jump of 10 places
to the 68th place. Its assets rose by almost
22
Methodology
TOP 100 banks is a ranking of
the largest banks in Southeast
Europe in terms of total assets
from non-consolidated balance
sheets as of December 31,
2011.
To allow comparison, all local
currencies have been converted
into euro, using the central
banks’ offi cial exchange rates
on the last working day of 2011
and 2010, respectively. Local
currency fi gures have been used
when calculating year-on-year
changes.
All data is sourced from central
banks, national commercial
registers, fi nancial supervision
commissions, bank associations,
government and corporate
websites, and companies
themselves.
The initial pool of companies
exceeds 240 banks registered in
the region including branches
and representative offi ces of
foreign banks.
40% to 956.3 million euro last year but its
profi t shrank to 3.2 million from 13.2 million
euro in 2010. The bank is 99.97%-owned by
the state.
Slovenia’s Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank d.d. was the
biggest decliner, sliding 28 places in the ranking
to the 37th position. Its assets fell some
10% while its net loss rose by 2.1% to 26.9 million
euro. The bank said that the fall in assets
was a result of the transfer of a portion of
non-banking sector loans to an enterprise in
the group while its loss was largely due to a
23% increase in loan impairments.
There were 241 active banks in SEE at the end
of 2011, up from 238 a year earlier.