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Weekly Lists
November 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 27
bne:Banker
Credit growth in Western Balkans constrained by bad loans, IMF says
High levels of non-performing loans (NPLs), inadequate bankruptcy procedures and insufficient funding constrain credit growth in the six Western Balkan countries at times when credit is most needed, the International Monetary Fund said in its Regional Economic Out- look for Europe issued on November 13.
According to the report, credit-to-GDP ratios are still below the levels predicted by fundamentals in most of the Western Balkan countries despite growing modestly in the last few years, and the factors holding this back are unlikely to be resolved soon.
Although funding by parent banks has increased, it is not enough as foreign banks see limited prospects in the region and push their local subsidiaries to self-fund. Moreover, some of the parent banks have faced stress in the past and some of them are still vulnerable.
Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), the second largest bank oper- ating across Central and Eastern Europe by assets, made a higher than expected consolidated profit in the third quarter, with Poland the only black spot.
In Q3 RBI recorded a consolidated profit of €322mn, up 63% year- on-year, beating the €255mn forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll.
“We are very satisfied with the results for the first nine months,” said CEO Johann Strobl. “We increased net interest income slight- ly and net commission income significantly, and we kept general administrative expenses stable year-on-year.” He added: “The broad economic upswing in CEE is reflected in all our segments. We post profits in all our markets.”
Fugitive Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov has agreed to a deal giving him Belgian citizenship and immunity from Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh and UK prosecutors in exchange for providing evidence to Belgium's "Kazakhgate commission" investigating two other wealthy Kazakh businessmen, the dispatchweekly.com website reported on November 12, citing anonymous sources.
The two Kazakh businessmen are Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov, who had been previously been suspected of forgery and money laundering in the early 2000s until the case was dropped. Ablyazov is the former head of BTA Bank and has been accused by the Kazakh authorities of massive fraud.
RBI posts higher than expected profit in Q3
Fugitive Kazakh banker reportedly agrees on Belgian immunity deal