SocGen's ambition: BRD to become biggest bank by 2015

By 2015, BRD must become the biggest bank in Romania, by boosting its market share by around two percentage points both on loans and on deposits and by extending its territorial network to 1,000 branches - the strategic target officially announced in Paris by French group Société Générale. The ambition to replace BCR as no. 1 on the Romanian banking market has emerged over the last two years via comments from group officials, but it is for the first time that SocGen has stated it so firmly and, moreover, at an investor conference.

"Our ambition is to become the no. 1 bank in Romania and we will continue to gain market share," said Jean-Louis Mattei, head of the international retail banking division. He oversees SocGen operations in Romania and was one of the people behind the BRD takeover project in 1999. Mattei was kept by Frederic Oudea in SocGen's top management team, while other executives were replaced over the last two years.

At the end of last year BRD had a 14.1% market share in terms of balance sheet assets, while BCR's share was 19%.