Agricultural funding will become a growth factor in the banking business over the coming years, although bankers still avoid it at the moment. "We are not taking exposure to agriculture at the moment, but I am convinced that, in one or two years, funding in this field will be the name of the game," Dan Pascariu, head of HVB Tiriac Bank told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
The banks still have limited exposure to agricultural funding, although some of the small players, such as ProCredit Bank or Romanian International Bank are already offering loans to farmers or farming companies.
Pascariu says that the real estate market remains "extraordinarily lucrative," for the time being, with soaring demand for funding, followed by energy, the automotive and components industry, and the processing and foods industries.
HVB Tiriac will finalise its merger with UniCredit Romania at the beginning of June.
The two banks were expecting the NBR's final approval for merger on Friday, which is required in order to register the new UniCredit Tiriac Bank with the Trade Registry Office.
"We are prepared to conclude the merger on June 1, as scheduled. The first month after the technical integration is a critical period when the stability of the systems will be checked, yet I do not expect big issues, considering the extent of the data migration will be much lower than in the case of the previous merger between HVB and Banca Tiriac," Dan Pascariu told ZF. He is the HVB Tiriac Bank chairman and the appointed chairman of the Board of Directors of the future UniCredit Tiriac bank.
He says the summer will give the new bank the time it needs to fine-tune its operations. "We can enter the market in September at cruising speed. No longer distracted by the merger, we will focus completely on business," Pascariu informs competition. UniCredit Tiriac should be number four on the market in terms of assets. The main competitor targeted is Raiffeisen.
Pascariu says that financial results in the first quarter of this year, when the bank made about 22 million-euro profit seemed "unexpectedly good" to him. "Despite the prolonged merger, we continued to do business, and the very good productivity was not diluted by the merger of the two banks."
The new bank will apply the risk philosophy of Bank Austria Creditanstalt, more moderate that the stern principles of UniCredit, which could have limited sales.
"We will be able to sell a great deal through UniCredit's branches, which have very high capacities, but did not have enough products until now," Pascariu says.
As far as retail is concerned, the new bank will not target the lower segments of the market but make mortgage lending one of its major targets. UniCredit Tiriac also intends to tackle the SMEs segment, which is already seeing a number of banks competing over it.
On Friday, June 1, HVB Tiriac and UniCredit's branches will not conduct any operations, and will only stay open to provide financial advice. Internet Banking/Online Banking and Multicash applications will be unavailable until Monday, June 4.
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