Egnatia Bank reached a volume of granted loans worth 244m euros in September, triple the amount registered last autumn.
"We had very good results on the corporate segment. We have financed several real estate projects, and also projects in other fields," says Stylianos Sofianos, chairman and general manager of the bank. At present, the corporate segment generates around 85% of the bank's turnover.
In the first 9 months, Egnatia derived net income worth 3.9m euros (in line with international accounting standards), compared with 2.3m euros in the same period last year. In line with Romanian accounting standards, net income is forecast to stand at 4.8m euros. Sofianos believes the difference comes from the exchange rate trend.
The bank's assets climbed to 341m euros, up 112% against last September. Customer deposits posted slower growth (75%) and reached 102m euros.
In late September, Egnatia owned a network of 15 branches, but by yearend another 4 branches will open in Bistrita, Craiova, Suceava and Galati.
"According to our 3-year plan, we intend to strengthen our presence and cover 50 major cities. We will try to step up growth on the retail segment," says Sofianos.
In addition, the bank recently received the green light from the NBR regarding its own lending norms. With the application of the new norms, Egnatia has also extended its period for loans to 35 years. In the first half of next year, it will launch unsecured loans and cards, as the bank has already received the necessary licence from Visa. In the coming years, the bank will also introduce cards for business users.
Until the end of this year, Egnatia is set to undergo a rebranding process. After the parent bank in Greece, Egnatia Bank, merged with banking groups Marfin and Laiki, the new entity adopted the Marfin brand. As a result, by yearend, the Romanian branch will also take the identity of the group and will be named Marfin Bank Romania.
Recently, Marfin financial group also created a mandatory private pension management company. After the first month, Marfin Fond de Pensii had not started to attract any customers, which places it among 3 of the 18 managers on the market with zero sales.
In its campaign, Marfin will rely on appealing to existing customers, as the management of the pension company has stated. On the overall market, more than 1.14 million Romanians have chosen a pension fund, namely a third of the 3.5 million expected to join these funds by January 17, 2008.
On the domestic market, the group also operates a leasing company, Egnatia Leasing. This subsidiary will also undergo a rebranding process and adopt the Marfin name.
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