The year 2006 witnessed the biggest number of transactions in the recent history of the banking system, most of which concerning small banks. Top of the list, however, was the completion of BCR's takeover by Erste Bank.
While in the case of BCR, the bank will keep its name and only the logo and brand image will change, in the other cases, the deals have brought or will bring new names onto the market.
At the same time, in the wake of 2006 deals, the number of Romanian privately-held banks dropped from 7 to 3: Banca Transilvania, Banca Carpatica and Libra Bank.
Only two state-owned banks are left on the market: CEC, due to the failed privatisation, and Eximbank.
The first takeover deal was sealed in March, when Italy's C.R. Firenze bought 56.2% in the share capital of Daewoo Bank, subsequently changing its name and launching an expansion process.
Another deal, another change of name on the banking market in the first half of 2006: the Egyptian arm of the biggest Lebanese bank, Blom Bank, acquired 96.8% in Misr Bank Bucharest. After the takeover, the credit institution was renamed Blom Bank Egypt.
August also saw the finalisation of Eurom Bank's takeover by the Israeli Bank Leumi. The rebranding and image change process is still underway. During the same month, Greece's ATE Bank managed to purchase 56.96% in Mindbank, despite the high shareholder dispersion. Shareholders are due to decide on changing the name of the bank and its management team.
The first major merger on the banking market, between HVB Romania and Banca Tiriac was forged in August, too. The bank started operating on September 1st under the name of HVB Tiriac Bank. Consolidation continued this year with the merger of HVB Tiriac and UniCredit Romania, with a bank due to rank 4th on the market in terms of assets to result on June 1st.
After Mindbank, another privately held bank was taken over by a foreign investor in October. Hungary's MKB Bank bought 55.4% in Romexterra Bank. The new name of the bank will be MKB Romexterra Bank. In late December, the NBR granted Bank of Cyprus an operating licence for its Romanian subsidiary.
In the wake of all these changes, the banking system at the end of 2006 included 38 credit institutions, compared with 39 in 2005.
Banking system capitalisation rose by 22.2% in real terms, according to the data sent to the NBR, to 9.4bn RON (some 2.7bn euros). The weight of public capital rose by 2.9% to 14.9%, while private capital accounted for 85.1% of the total.
During the same year, major banks interested in the domestic market preferred to enter the market by taking over non-banking financial institutions.
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