Erste Bank Group announced that it made a EUR300m write-down on goodwill primarily associated with its Romanian subsidiary BCR, though the head of UniCredit's CEE operations played down prospects for goodwill write-downs, saying the region's leading lender had always taken a conservative approach to valuations.

"We feel pretty confident we have a clean house. No surprises," Gianni Franco Papa told a news conference on Tuesday when asked about rival Erste's move.

Erste said in a statement on its write-down that: "As a result of this extraordinary measure and the recently announced disposal of Erste Group's Ukrainian subsidiary, Erste Group expects to post a net profit of about EUR 450 million for the full year of 2012. Erste Group confirms its guidance for operating performance and risk costs, as issued at its Q3 12 results announcement on 30 October 2012 and will propose to the annual general meeting to fully service participation capital as well as pay a dividend on ordinary shares for the 2012 business year. As goodwill is excluded from the regulatory capital calculation, Erste Group will report significantly improved capital ratios as at year-end 2012."

Source: bne