Almost two years after losing the race for the acquisition of the biggest banking business in Romania, BCR, Portuguese Millennium Bcp group is now trying to gain a share of the 60 billion-euro domestic market (which is very crowded and competitive), by starting "from scratch". This strategy requires large investments and lots of time, which, however, many international groups prefer.
The biggest Portuguese group officially began the "battle" for market and clients yesterday, after luring staff from rival banks for almost a year.
Millennium Bank Romania commenced its operations with a network of 39 branches yesterday, after investments worth 40 million euros. At least two more branches will become operational by the end of the year.
According to its strategy, the network should reach 100 branches by 2009, while the investment plan totals 300 million euros, which will support development until 2013. "Romania has significant prospects for economic growth and implicitly growth on the financial sector. We believe we will have room to grow and implement our commercial model. To us, Romania is the market with the highest growth potential," said Filipe Pinhal, chairman and CEO of Millennium Bcp, at the official launch of the local branch.
The Portuguese say they come with a markedly different territorial network that operates with specialised offices, which can conduct operations 24 hours a day.
They will act aggressively on three market segments - corporate, retail (small companies and individuals with sizeable incomes) and consumer finance. As far as Millennium is concerned, the market in Portugal is no longer able to generate steady growth, which is why the bank is attempting to expand onto other markets.
"We are present in many countries, but try and act as a local bank in each of them. We are Greek in Greece, Polish in Poland, and in Romania we will not be Portuguese but Romanians," said Filipe Pinhal.
The current 500-strong team at Millennium Bank Romania includes only five Portuguese members. Number two at the bank is Dan Sandu, who came from Citibank Romania and worked for the National Bank of Romania a decade ago. To build their team, the Portuguese recruited staff from several banks, such as ABN Amro, Banca Transilvania, UniCredit Tiriac and ING.
"The financial sector in Romania is very competitive, the big regional banks are already present, and so life here will not be easy. We want to be a universal bank, with a wide range of products and several distribution channels," said Jose Toscano, head of Romanian operations, who was also in charge of the team that bid for BCR two years ago.
Millennium operates small-sized loan centres, eleven financial centres and a special branch for its private banking clients in Bucharest.
Besides its territorial branches, Millennium also provides an Internet banking service and a call centre.
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