Intesa Sanpaolo, the domestic division of Italy's largest financial group, is counting on the potential of real estate loans to gain a market share.
"Intesa Sanpaolo Bank will pursue a gradual growth strategy along all segments of retail finance, with a focus on mortgages and real estate loans. Mortgages and real estate loans will continue to encourage growth on the segment of retail and banking for the entire market, and for our bank, as well," Nicola Calabro, general manager of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, told ZF.
"We considered two scenarios for our development on the Romanian market. One refers to a possible acquisition of another bank, but none of the possibilities matched the group's vision and expectations. The other one relied on an organic growth strategy," explains Nicola Calabro.
He indicated that organic growth ensures controlled development and creates the possibility of the bank's adjusting to the requirements and reactions of the domestic market.
The Italian group chose Romania as a pilot-country for its new branch design, with the strategy to be subsequently employed at a global level.
Besides the diversification of the product range, the Italian group also targets expansion on the leasing and asset management markets. "Leasing operations will be launched by the end of this year, while asset management operations will most likely start next year. Depending on market developments and reactions, we'll try to anticipate the need for certain new banking services we want to launch in Romania," concluded Nicola Calabro.
The domestic market is a priority for the rapid development of the Italian group. In fact, the domestic subsidiary has recently received a massive injection of capital from the group, worth 100m euros.
The capital increase, of which a part will be earmarked for the expansion of the national network of branches and offices, will support the bank's development strategy for the domestic market until 2010.
The lending institution ended Q1 with net income worth almost 905,000 euros, whilst the increase calculated in RON amounts to 175% against the same period in 2007. The bank's assets increased to 563m euros, up 90% on last March.
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