Volksbank Romania breaks even

Volksbank Romania, the branch of the namesake Austrian group, set a net profit of more than 2 million euros and over 70% growth in assets in real terms as this year's goals. Moreover, it pursues an increase in the customer base by more than 175% to 35,000. "The growth plans for this year are bold, but considering we had a very good year in 2003, we are optimistic. Retail and small and medium-sized companies will remain our targets. We will open 5 more branches and about 20 offices, which do not perform as many operations as a regular branch, mainly in those areas we see as having potential," Laurentiu Mitrache, Volksbank president told Ziarul Financiar. Volksbank Romania logged 60bn ROL (about 1.5 million euro) net profit last year, the first profit since the start of its business on the Romanian market. Ass ets had reached 149 million euros by the end of 2003, so that the bank accounted for more than 1.1% of the market. ZF