About 15.5 million depositors (mainly individuals) hold bank deposits worth almost 548 billion lei in September 2023, according to data presented on Thursday by the Association of Romanian Banks.

Digitization accelerated during this period. Credit institutions are investing in technology and innovation, and the offer of online products and services has grown significantly since the start of the pandemic in terms of efficiency and accessibility.

The number of card transactions per one million inhabitants increased fivefold in 5 years and amounted to 121 million in 2021 compared to 164 million on average in the Eurozone.

The profitability of the banking industry is lower than the profitability of non-financial companies

The profitability of the banking industry has remained below that of non-financial companies for the past decade.

The banking sector is at the bottom of the profitability ranking of economic sectors in Romania. The banking industry ranks 20th out of 24 in the best sectors of the economy in terms of return on capital.

The return on capital of non-financial companies (average ROE of economic sectors) in 2022 was 24%, while the return on capital of banks was 16.4%. The return on assets (ROA) of the banking system was 1.5%, which is almost 5 times lower than the industry average of 7.1% in 2022.

In the first ranking of economic sectors by return on assets, the banking sector ranks last, i.e. 24th out of 24 economic sectors.

Banks contribute to economic development and increase economic well-being by financing infrastructure, education, health care and other projects that have a positive impact on society.

Between January 2020 and August 2023, Romanian banks granted new loans to individuals and companies worth more than 410 billion lei, equivalent to 29% of Romania’s gross domestic product in 2022. The volume of new loans granted to the population and companies for 3 years and eight months since the beginning of the pandemic exceeds by 8.25% the balance of non-state credit recorded at the end of August 2023, which is almost 379 billion lei. In the first eight months of the current year, 89 billion lei of new loans were granted, which is more than in the whole of 2020.

The balance of non-government credit is calculated as the difference between the total volume of new loans to households and enterprises and partial and full repayment, as well as the sale of loans. The speed of credit renewal is accelerating due to the increase in financing of companies, a significant proportion of which have access to short-term loans for a period of less than a year.