RBS Romania is the former ABN Amro Romania, which was taken over in 2007 in an international deal, and which the Brits rebranded locally last summer.
RBS Bank Romania representatives did not provide any comment on the information at hand yesterday.
At the beginning of this week, Governor Mugur Isarescu said RBS was "one of the best, soundest banks in Romania." International media has recently said that the British RBS group would split its assets into two entities as part of a reorganisation plan, a "good bank" and a "bad bank". Retail operations in Eastern Europe should be included in the "bad bank" part.
Governor Isarescu said it would be a pity to include the local branch into the bad bank. According to the latest data published by the National Bank of Romania, RBS Bank Romania had 1.8 billion euros in assets in December 2007. In 2007, the bank had posted 6.2 million-euro net profit. Traditionally, the former ABN Amro (which had entered the local market in 1995) had a stronger position on the corporate finance segment.
The bank has been developing retail operations since 2004, but has relied only on mobile officers, while the territorial network has grown slowly to 27 branches at present.
In 2008, RBS Romania was valued at 300 million euros in ZF's "Top 100 most valuable companies in Romania" Yearbook. Royal Bank of Scotland, which announced 24.1 billion pounds sterling (about 28 billion euros) in losses for 2008, also presented a reorganisation plan, whereby it intends to get back on its feet over the next three to five years.
The group will receive an injection worth 13 billion pounds sterling from the British government to bolster its capital base.
According to the restructuring plan, the group is now dividing its subsidiaries into three categories: primary countries, countries where it will shift focus and markets where it is "exploring new owners". Romania is included in the third category, along with the operations in Argentina, Chile, Portugal, Slovakia and Venezuela.
This is the first exit of a major international financial group from the local market since the end of the nineties. Foreigners control more than 90% of the assets in the Romanian system through local subsidiaries.
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