Warsaw-based BRE Bank has suffered its largest ever quarterly loss, as its Q4 results were zł.385.9 million in the red

Warsaw-based BRE Bank has suffered its largest ever quarterly loss, as its Q4 results were zł.385.9 million in the red. Its full year figure ended with a loss of zł.278.4 million, which is much worse than the zł.5.5 million profit posted in 2003. Analysts had been expecting the bank to post a loss due to revaluation of assets and the need to create reserves to cover some of them, but the zł.278 million loss was far beyond even their worst expectations. "I expect that this kind of correction will never happen again. I want the markets to know that it was a one-time event," said Sławomir Lachowski, president of BRE Bank. Despite the substantial loss, the bank kept its solvency ratio at 9.99%, which is well above the safe level of 8% and it is expected to increase to 12% by the end of 2005. The bank will continue to develop its retail branches, which should generate one-third of all revenues by 2007.