Banca Transilvania posts sustained growth in operating activity 

in the first three months of the year

Banca Transilvania reported positive results in the first three months of the year, with growth in customer savings, the loan book, transaction volumes and new client acquisition.

• Transactions processed through Banca Transilvania reached nearly half a billion in the first three months of the year, +35% versus the first quarter of 2023.
• Nearly 74,000 new loans were granted by the bank in the first three months of the year, +26% versus the same period last year, totalling 5.2 billion lei.
• BT’s client base grew by almost 50,000, of whom 42,000 are individuals and around 8,000 are companies. 35% of individuals became clients by opening a current account via BT Pay, without any trip to the bank. The bank continued to support early-stage businesses, attracting nearly 11,000 start-ups in the first three months. BT’s total active clients reached over 4.3 million. 

The start of the year is encouraging and shows we are on track to meet our objectives for the first part of 2024. We are focused on growing volumes and client numbers, attracting business across all the segments we operate in, and strengthening the companies within the BT Group. In doing so, we are expanding the balance sheet and scale of the BT Group, making a significant contribution to financial inclusion in Romania. Macroeconomically, the year remains challenging given elevated global uncertainty and volatility, as well as the economic indicators. Inflation is proving stickier than we had hoped, and growth remains subdued. Even so, we are optimistic and are investing consistently in developing the business.
Ӧmer Tetik, CEO, Banca Transilvania

First-quarter financial results

• The BT Group’s consolidated net profit was 1,132.4 million lei (+35% versus the first quarter of 2023), of which the bank’s net profit was 913.2 million lei (+35% versus the first quarter of 2023). Subsidiaries and equity investments contributed approximately 219.2 million lei to BT’s profitability.
• The BT Financial Group’s assets reached ≈176 billion lei, and net loans stood at 77.1 billion lei.
• The bank’s cost-to-income ratio was 45.10%, calculated including the annualised impact of contributions to the Bank Deposit Guarantee Fund and the Resolution Fund.
• The bank’s net interest income was 28% higher than in the first quarter of 2023.
• Net fee and commission income rose by 18% versus the same period a year earlier, supported by BT’s higher activity levels.
• Customer deposits at the bank increased to 137 billion lei, of which 88.1 billion lei are personal savings and 48.8 billion lei are corporate deposits.
• The bank’s gross loans-to-deposits ratio is 56.3%.
• The non-performing loan ratio under the EBA definition was 2.01% at March 31, 2024.
• The total capital ratio is 20.06% excluding profit, and 21.47% including profit.

Business line developments

• Customer deposits at the bank were up by 14.7 billion lei, +12% versus March 2023.
• The bank’s gross loan book increased by 9.5 billion lei, +14.1% versus March 2023.
• Nearly 4,000 people bought homes with BT’s support, with approximately 1 billion lei disbursed.
• The mortgage/real estate loan book stands at 19 billion lei, up 13% compared with the first quarter of 2023, representing 25% of the loan portfolio.
• The balance of loans to businesses reached approximately 45 billion lei, 16% higher than at the end of the first quarter of the previous year.

Digitalisation and AI adoption

• 92% of the bank’s clients (almost 4 million) are digital and use at least one of the bank’s apps.
• Clients’ saving behaviour was also encouraged by the new Round Up feature in the BT Pay app, activated by over 12,000 clients each month between January and March 2024. 
• BT Pay added 200,000 new users, a record for a three-month period.
• Of BT’s 6.1 million cards, 3.8 million are unique cards in the BT Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay wallets.
• In the BT Go app, launched in July 2023, almost 80,000 companies are enrolled. They made nearly 500,000 payments in the first three months of the year.
• The number of mobile payments was up 40% in the first quarter of 2024 versus the first quarter of 2023.
• BT is in the first wave of AI implementation in banking. In February it announced a collaboration with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot into employees’ work — AI assistants that help establish new day-to-day habits and increase efficiency in software development.

Financial education: 

• There were over 120,000 interactions with FIT (Finanțe pe Înțelesul Tuturor), the bank’s national financial education programme, through BT’s network and online.
• Nearly 1 million people made over 1.5 million visits to Întreb BT, the online platform with over 2,000 questions and answers, most of them from Romania, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. Approximately 60,000 people used the AI Search feature between January and March 2024.