The Banking Market in Romania Maintained High Growth During 2006.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c48774 ) has announced the addition of Banking Market in Romania 2007 - CEE Banking Series to their offering.

Banking Market in Romania 2007 is a well structured and synthetic source of key data about the banking market in Romania. It consists of 7 chapters and contains among others: a macroeconomic overview, general banking market statistics with identification of key players, separated parts on retail and corporate banking, a section about profitability, Profiles of the top 5 players and finally mid-term forecasts of key banking volumes (deposits and loans) for each segment: retail and corporate banking.

Most of the data presented in this report has been updated as of 3Q 2006.

Similarly to other publications (CEE banking series) this report has been prepared in form of a horizontal, management-style presentation and consists mainly of graphs, tables and charts. The share of text has been reduced to necessary comments and conclusions only.

Topics Covered
1. Macroeconomic overview
2. Banking market
2.1. Banking market - regulatory overview
2.2. Banking market - general trends
3. Retail banking

4. Corporate banking
5. Banks profitability
6. Top 5 banks profiles
7. Mid-term forecasts

Companies Mentioned

- BRD Groupe Societe Generale - Raiffeisen Bank - HVB Tiriac S.A. - Alpha Bank - Bancpost - ABN Amro Bank - Volksbank Romania - Banca Romaneasca Grupul National Bank of Greece - Citibank Romania - UniCredit Romania - OTP Bank Romania - Banca Comerciala Romana - Banca Comerciala Carpatica - Banca de Export Import a Romaniei - Eximbank - Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni - C.E.C. bank

Summary

Central bank policy

In 2006 the monetary policy of the Central Bank has been tightened: The reference rate has been raised to 8.75%, the mandatory reserve requirement jumped to 20%/40% for RON/FX deposits respectively and new lending restrictions on banks, especially in case of FX-loans have been imposed

Continuing market growth

The banking market maintained high growth pace during the year 2006. Most rapid development has been experienced in case of retail and corporate lending. At the end of 2006, for the first time in history, the retail loans value has exceeded retail deposits, creating for banks a new challenge. In response to this situation and in reaction to restrictions from BNR, some banks decided to transfer their loans abroad, which proved to be a right move in order to maintain high sales volumes

M&A activity & rising stars

The consolidation of UniCredit subsidiaries has already started and will soon produce a #4 player in terms of assets. The bank has already announced plans of further acquisitions in Romania in 2007/2008; During 2006 some rising stars have changed significantly the top banks league table: Most dynamic bank: Banca Transilvania jumped from #10 (2004) to #5 (3Q 2006) breaking the myth that banks having foreign investor grow faster than local ones. In contrary the CEC bank has continued to loose market share, and has not been able to make use of its unique asset large distribution network. CEC bank has fallen in the top banks rank to #8 (3Q2006)

Banking Infrastructure

Most of banks are heavily investing in physical networks expansion. In total the number of bank outlets has increased in 2006 by several Hundreds, similarly to ATM and POS networks. Many banks have also upgraded their remote channels (internet, call centers, IVR) to improve their service level and reduce costs of transactional operations.

Prospects

The mid-term prospects are very good. Growing wealth of individuals, very low unemployment and good condition of enterprises fueled by record foreign direct investments will convert into additional demand for banking services. The EU membership and higher market transparency is likely to attract to Romania new banking players and financial services specialists, as it happened in other CEE accession countries including Poland

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