Banca Romaneasca and all the domestic subsidiaries of NBG (National Bank of Greece) group will be rebranded in the following months, to have a common identity.
NBG, a major player in Greece and present on several CEE markets, is set to carry out its international rebranding process this year, to unify the identity of its subsidiaries.
"We'll launch the rebranding process over the next six months and it will include all the subsidiaries that currently have different names," Andreas Maragkoudakis, Banca Romaneasca CEO, told ZF.
The Greek group entered Romania in the nineties and initially operated a single subsidiary. In 2003 it bought the controlling stake in Banca Romaneasca and subsequently unified the two entities.
In Romania, the group also operates a financial services firm, Eteba, a leasing firm, Eurial, and an insurer, Garanta Asigurari.
The rebranding process will be coordinated from Athens and the group is expected to support a large part of the earmarked budget.
As regards Banca Romaneasca, it has now reached the end of the restructuring process it started in 2005. The bank has significantly boosted its turnover, and the volume of loans climbed from 120m euros in December 2004 to 1.32bn euros late last year.
"We'll try to continue and grow aggressively, we want to boost financing granted by around 80% this year, but we won't try to achieve this at all costs (...)," says Maragkoudakis. In addition, the bank will have to finalise the implementation of a new basic IT system, which will affect the performance of its network.
The bank's network is expected to comprise around 160 braches by yearend, from 122 in December. Almost 50 branches were opened last year, whilst expansion expenses put pressure on profits. Maragkoudakis expects gross income to reach some 12m euros, down slightly year-on-year.
With 1.9bn-euro assets at the end of last year, the bank accounted for a 2.7% of the market, according to its own estimates.
"I believe the overall market will continue to grow aggressively, but I hope banks will be more cautious because the risks are now higher," says Maragkoudakis.
On the one hand, the deteriorating international and domestic business environment has pushed risks higher and on the other hand the system already comes after a series of years of rapid growth, which cannot continue indefinitely.
Maragkoudakis says the RON's fall has not generated problems in terms of foreign currency loans as yet. "(...) But, should the RON continue to fall, some clients are sure to have trouble paying back their loans".
Maragkoudakis believes the economic environment did not look good at the beginning of the year, although there has been no indication of a strong deterioration either.
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