Raiffeisen Bank, the third largest lending institution on the Romanian market, closed the first half of this year with a net income worth 47.2m euros, 2.8 times higher against the same period in 2006, as a result of last year's restructuring programmes and sales boosting strategies. "The impact of the 2006 measures, network specialisation along business lines and a stronger sales focus, is certainly visible. We obviously increased our focus on efficiency, the more so as we're approaching a period when market competition is set to become even fiercer," Steven Van Groningen (photo), Raiffeisen Bank chairman, told ZF. The bank last summer launched branches dedicated to specific products, such as mortgage loan centres and also introduced a scheme where personnel is paid depending on sales performance. In addition, Raiffeisen Bank's chairman explained that the ratio between cost/revenues maintained its downward trend. "Being extremely efficient is not beneficial either, because one no longer has the capacity to profit from opportunities that emerge on the market". The bank's total assets soared by 23.4% against last year's, to 3.94bn euros. On top of these assets are added loans registered with the parent company in Vienna, which reported assets worth 4.93bn euros in Romania. The volume of loans granted to customers and registered domestically exceeded 2.1bn euros, up 35% from 2006. Deposits advanced by 36%, marginally faster than lending and topped 3bn euros. Van Groningen also stated that the business witnessed a balanced growth on both the retail and corporate segments.
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