The central Europe banking sector continues to show strong growth in all indicators, particularly profits, as foreign-owned institutions take an ever more dominant role in the region. While The Banker’s Top 100 central European listing is headed for the first time by Hungary’s expanding, locally-owned OTP Bank, almost 80% of the listing are now foreign-owned. This not only reflects the growth opportunities but the strong economic growth in the region in 2004 which ranges from 2.5% in Macedonia to 8.1% in Romania; this compares to a eurozone GDP growth figure of around 2% for the same period.
Aggregate Tier 1 capital for the Top 100 grew 29.2% to $38.21bn, aggregate assets grew 30.2% to $475.52bn and pre-tax profit grew 64.0% to $8.74bn. This compares with growth figures of 21.5%, 22.0% and 31.0% for the same parameters last year.
