Hungarian OTP Bank is planning to win 4-5% of the market in Romania by 2010 through organic development of their local branches. They are also ready to make a "fair" bid in the contest for CEC.
"We want to expand our territorial network to some 150 branches over the next five years. In our position as a universal bank, the product and services portfolio will be aimed at both the retail and business segments," said Antal Pongracz, chairman of OTP Bank Romania''s board of directors.
Frigyes Harshegyi, the general manager of OTP Bank Romania, says he hopes to see the bank''s asset volume reach 500 million euros by the end of next year.
OTP Bank bought RoBank last year for 47.5 million euros, a bank that ranked number 13 in the Romanian banking system with about 1 % of the market in terms of assets. The Hungarian bank recently changed its name to OTP Bank Romania.
The bank posted pre-tax losses of 3.25 million euros in the first half. Its net losses of 3.1 million euros in the second quarter were much higher than the 200,000 euros seen in the first quarter.
OTP Bank Romania''s assets amounted to 196 million euros at the end of June, an increase of 1% on the end of March. Bank officials say the relaunching of the Romanian branch will take place in the last quarter of the year. The bank''s restructuring process is currently ongoing.
"The restructuring of the retail and IT departments is already complete. We will open 25 more branches by the end of the year to add to the existing 16," Harshegyi said.
He went on to say that the bank would have branches in the main cities across the country - including Bucharest, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca - and that other important places for business would not be overlooked.
"The development of the bank is supported financially by the OTP Group, which sees the Romanian market as having very high growth potential. New technologies, such as electronic and mobile banking, will help us to grow and consolidate our client portfolio. We are also interested in funding infrastructure projects in cities," the OTP Romania general manager said.
Along with eight other banks, OTP Bank Hungary submitted a letter of intent on August 31 in the privatisation of Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (Romanian Savings Bank : CEC). liviu.chiru@zf.ro
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