Intesa Sanpaolo Bank Romania closed the first 3 months of this year with a positive net result. Following a successful merger of its banking activities in Romania, Intesa Sanpaolo Group optimizes financial results.

In the first quarter of 2013 the Romanian Subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo Group achieved a net profit of 4 million lei (against a loss of 64.5 million lei in the first quarter of 2012) and a 50% operating profit increase from 14 million to 21 million this year. This favourable result is due to a 6.2% growth of revenues to 55 million lei and to a decrease of operational costs of 10% to 33.8 million lei, compared to the same period last year.

Ezio Salvai, Chief Executive Officer of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank declared: "Last year we strategically decided to focus on portfolio cleaning and rationalisation in preparation for the merger of our Group’s two Banks in Romania. This year our goal is rather to improve our commercial performance, through a balanced and healthy growth between deposits and loans. Whilst the local business environment remains extremely difficult, with a large number of corporate insolvencies that will continue to affect all Romanian Banks’ performances, we are quite confident on the future, having adopted a long term strategy in this Country. We continue to believe in the Romanian market aiming to build long-term relationships with our customers and take full advantage of the Group support. Intesa Sanpaolo is not only one of the World’s most reputable financial Institutions, but also ranks among the strongest Banks in Europe in terms of capital ratios".

Whilst positive results could not be confirmed at this stage for the rest of this Financial Year, the Bank has reported satisfactory commercial results achieving an improvement of volumes larger than its competitors, in a rather stagnant market (almost 6% increase of gross loan increase compared to March 2012, up to 4 billion Lei). Customers Deposits increased by 11% compared to March 2012, up to 2.6 billion Lei, while total banking deposits increased by 3.7%. Intesa Sanpaolo Bank net assets after provisions remained constant at around 5 billion Lei.

Intesa Sanpaolo is the leader in Italy in all business areas (retail, corporate and wealth management). The Group offers its services to 10.9 million customers through a network of 5,300 branches well distributed throughout the country and a market shares no lower than 15% in most Italian regions. Intesa Sanpaolo has a selected presence in Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa with over 1,500 branches and 8.3 million customers operating in retail and commercial banking in 12 countries. Moreover, Intesa Sanpaolo has an international network of specialists supporting corporate customers across 30 countries, in particular in the Middle East and North Africa and in those areas where Italian companies are most active, such as the United States and BRIC Countries.