Cetelem head: Loan demand is bouncing back
Cetelem, the biggest consumer lending company on the market,
controlled by BNP Paribas French group, budgeted a 25% increase in
new funding from 2010 and particularly counts on credit cards and
loans applied for online.
French Gilles Zeitoun, 41, who has run Cetelem Romania for one
year, says new funding granted by Cetelem advanced by 29% last year
owing to credit card sales and estimates an average increase of 10%
on the entire market, with a similar pace likely to be registered
this year, as well.
"The consumer lending market started expanding again last year, but
at a slow pace. In the case of Cetelem, sales of new loans topped
our initial expectations owing to card segment activity. We'll
further bet on credit cards and on the online sale of loans since
we saw this is a strategy starting to bear fruit," Zeitoun
stated.
The company last year issued 66,000 credit cards and reached a
portfolio of around 300,000, with sales being spurred by the launch
of a scheme of payments in fixed instalments for purchases by
credit card and by periodic promotional offers.
Cetelem has the third largest credit card portfolio among domestic
financial institutions, after Credit Europe Bank and Raiffeisen, in
line with data available on the market.