Banca Transilvania, the main financier of the economy again in 2019

Banca Transilvania posted solid results in 2019, another year in which it made a strong contribution to the economy through the 223,000 loans granted to companies and individuals. Businesses received financing of over 10.5 billion lei, with the bank supporting their development, economic growth and job creation in sectors such as manufacturing, trade, IT, healthcare, agriculture and construction. More than 9,600 Romanians bought a home with support from Banca Transilvania.

The number of active customers rose by 15% to around 3.3 million, and the number of those who have their income paid into BT accounts increased by 64% to 1.8 million, supported in part by the merger with Bancpost.

The 2019 results reflect Banca Transilvania’s strong capital position, with shareholders’ equity of 8.5 billion lei, up 15% versus 2018. BT has 64.66% Romanian capital, over 31,000 direct shareholders and 7 million indirect investors, considering that BT is a preferred holding for pension funds.

“For BT, 2019 was a good year: we grew sustainably and the results demonstrate our solid financial position. As market leader we have responsibilities to Romania, and we know our role is essential in financing the economy and Romanians’ ambitions. We try to do more than banking — to inspire and motivate people and to be attentive to their concerns, whether they are colleagues, clients or partners of the bank. In 2020 we are continuing to invest in technology and innovation to further improve our services for customers. We will keep strengthening our role in the economy, monitoring market challenges as well as potential opportunities,” said Horia Ciorcilă, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Banca Transilvania.

The Banca Transilvania Financial Group’s assets reached 91.7 billion lei at the end of last year, and loans increased to 40.35 billion lei. Customer deposits totalled 77.04 billion lei, of which 51.67 billion lei were deposits from individuals and 25.37 billion lei from legal entities.

The BT Financial Group’s net consolidated profit was 1,848.07 million lei, of which the bank’s profit was 1,620.89 million lei. Banca Transilvania’s operating profit rose to 2,131.87 million lei thanks to efficiency gains and business consolidation. At its meeting on February 26 this year, BT’s Board of Directors decided to propose to shareholders the distribution in cash of around 60% of the 2019 profit available for allocation. The annual tax on assets was 103.6 million lei. Operating efficiency, measured by the cost/income ratio, remains at a comfortable level at Banca Transilvania, at 47.1%.

The bank took another step towards #maimultdecatbanking through the responsible use of resources: in February this year it launched, for investors and the general public, an online platform with information about BT’s involvement in sustainability and natural resources. Sections available on www.bancatransilvania.ro/think include: Think Green, People at BT, Growing Romania, Governance and leadership, Ratings.

Supporting Romanians and community involvement, in figures:

• 500,000 credit cards, used to make over 22 million transactions during the year;
• The SME loan portfolio (as per the EU definition of SMEs) reached 16.5 billion lei;
• The outstanding mortgage/home loan balance stands at 11.8 billion lei;
• Approximately 25 million lei were invested in over 1,000 social programmes, with the bank giving back to the community part of its earnings.

In 2019 the BT Financial Group announced the expansion of its financial services into private pensions by acquiring Certinvest Pensii, the only local player among Romania’s pension fund managers.

Results of investments in digitalisation:

• For 20% of the loans granted last year, retail customers applied online;
• 30% of the deposits opened in 2019 were via BT24 Internet Banking;
• Over 2.5 million operations took place on average each day through BT last year;
• Approximately 278 million transactions were made last year with BT cards. Every second there are on average 10 transactions with BT cards, and at peak times around 100;
• Nearly 40 million operations were carried out via BT24 Internet Banking and Mobile Banking, up 32% in 2019 versus 2018. The main operations were payments in lei, transfers between own accounts and bill payments;
• BT offers customers 10 self-banking solutions through apps, internet banking, mobile banking, chatbots and multifunctional ATMs. Customers prefer the phone for self-banking. In 2019, 35% of BT customer requests via Contact Center & Consumer Care were resolved through self-service;
• Banca Transilvania manages 59,600 POS terminals, representing 26% of the terminals installed in Romania. At year-end, BT had nearly 500 BT Express Plus multifunctional ATMs enabling self-service operations and over 1,200 cash-withdrawal ATMs nationwide.

BT customers’ preferred products and services in 2019. Trends:

• Retail customers favoured credit cards — for shopping and travel: over 100,000 were issued by the bank last year;
• The number of customers using BT Pay reached almost 550,000, a 3.6x increase in 2019 versus 2018;
• Early-stage entrepreneurs turned to BT Mic loans: half of the 10,000 customers were financed in 2019;
• SME & Micro clients preferred loans: BT granted 22,000 new loans worth 3.3 billion lei to 18,000 customers.

Other financial information:

• The ratio of non-performing exposures, according to the EBA indicator, was 4.36% at December 31, 2019;
• Total provision coverage of non-performing exposures under EBA standards was 94%. Including collateral, the coverage ratio was 128%;
• The bank’s capital adequacy ratio excluding 2019 profit was 17.83%. Including profit, it was 21.28%.

BT’s focus on agribusiness:

• Banca Transilvania is the largest financier of Romanian agriculture; in line with its focus on supporting entrepreneurs and sustainable growth, agribusiness was one of the bank’s priorities in 2019 and will remain so this year;  
• Last year the bank granted almost 4,500 loans worth 2 billion lei and reached 31,000 agribusiness clients;
• BT noted increased interest from agribusiness clients in working capital loans (+39% by number of new loans and +5% by value) and APIA loans (+22% by number of new loans and +65% by value); 
• In 2020 Banca Transilvania continues to support the adoption of technology in agribusiness and specialisation in agriculture to boost productivity and reduce environmental impact. As part of local communities, the bank’s role will be to help reposition agriculture in Romania: entrepreneurs should be increasingly in the role of monitoring technology, with equipment and machinery doing the work. The bank will also award scholarships this year to 10 agronomy students;
• 25% of the country’s active population works in agriculture, and Romania supports Europe as its eighth-largest agricultural producer, according to EU data (Eurostat).

BT played a significant role in financing healthcare through the Division for Doctors:

• Banca Transilvania is the market leader and has reached 48,000 clients;
• Medical clients preferred financing to build and equip clinics or hospitals. BT provided over 730 million lei to the medical sector in 2019;
• Medical clients — individuals, SMEs or corporate — can find at BT a one stop shop, as well as niche Private Banking services.

Ratings for Banca Transilvania:

• Business: Fitch Ratings reaffirmed Banca Transilvania’s Long-Term IDR at “BB+” with a stable outlook, as well as its Viability Rating at “bb+”;
• Investor relations: Banca Transilvania obtained the maximum Vektor Index score for investor communication in 2019 in the assessment by the Association for Investor Relations on the Stock Exchange regarding communication by companies listed on the Regulated Market. This is shown on the Bucharest Stock Exchange website, on BT’s profile page;

• Brand value: +100 positions in the Brand Finance Banking ranking, reaching 339th place. BT is in the global top 10 by the pace of growth in brand value and strength;
• Employee relations: BT received certification from Best Place to Work for in Romania, an international evaluation programme conducted in over 100 countries worldwide. The evaluation considered the following criteria: leadership, employee engagement, compensation and benefits, professional and personal development, team relationships, BT’s involvement in the community, HR policies and wellbeing.
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Information for BT shareholders: The preliminary financial statements as at December 31, 2019 are unaudited and unreviewed; those as at December 31, 2018 are audited. The preliminary financial results for 2019 are available on BT’s website, https://www.bancatransilvania.ro/actionari/rezultate-financiare/, on February 27 this year, starting at 8:30 a.m.

Banca Transilvania | Communications and Public Relations

Investor relations: relatiinvestitori@btrl.ro; Press contact: comunicare@btrl.ro