At the end of last November, the balance of loans released by commercial banks was by 35.4 billion lei higher. The banking performance rankings are topped by the banks of systemic importance for the national banking and financial systems, namely BC Moldova-Agroindbank, BC Mobiasbancă and BC Moldindconbank. These excel mainly in terms of profitability and market indicators and account for about 82% of the profit made at sector level and for 61% of the bank assets. The rankings were compiled by experts of the independent think tank “Expert-Grup”, IPN reports.
According to the rankings, the banks with the most solid capital basis in relation to assets are: BC Eximbank; BCR Chișinău and BC EuroCreditBank. The banks with the largest liquid assets are: BC Victoriabank; BC Eximbank and Moldindconbank. The banks with assets of the highest quality are: BC ProCredit Bank; EuroCreditBank and BC Fincombank. The banks with the highest return on capital are: Moldindconbank; Mobiasbancă and Moldova-Agroindbank, while the banks with the largest market share by the loan portfolio are: Moldova-Agroindbank; Moldindconbank and Mobiasbancă.
Bank liquidity remains much over the regulated limits and reaches about 55% in the medium term, which is the liquidity of banks represents over half of the assets. The quality of assets continues to improve owing to the sustained efforts made to solve the problem of expired loans provided before the banking crisis. Last November, the nonperforming loans represented about 13.4% of the loans, oscillating between 5% and 33%, depending on the bank. The banks continue to make profit, but their capacity to maintain such a pace in the long run seems limited as the profitability is not the result of lending activity, but rather a marginal effect of the monetary policy that can be taken inti account in the short term.
The study also shows that after three years of anemic development, the intermediation duty of banks started to show positive signs. Following the diminution of interest rates, the demand for new loans from private individuals and business entities grew. The financing of the population became more accentuated following the extension of the categories of persons who benefit from the state program “First house” and the rise in demand for consumer loans. Amid such developments, for the first time since the banking crisis of 2014-2015, the pace of providing new loans tends to be higher than that of repaying the earlier raised loans.
