Bancpost is targeting the fifth position in terms of domestic banking assets, with 3 billion euros halfway through the year, while Banca Transilvania, currently ranked fifth, reached assets worth 3.15 billion euros.
"The rise in Bancpost's total assets exceeded the targets set for the first six months of the year, reaching 22.6%. For the entire year, our objective is to increase our operating revenues by 54%, as well as boost our assets by 56%, which could potentially help us reposition ourselves from sixth to fifth in the ranking," Manuela Plapcianu, executive president of Bancpost and Country CEO of EFG Eurobank, the parent bank, told ZF.
Having taken over in February this year, Plapcianu says it will require another year to bring Bancpost up to Eurobank standards.
"This year, we will complete the restructuring of the bank both in terms of the organisation and financial performances." Plapcianu says the bank will finish the year with "genuine profit": "I cannot give an estimate at the moment, but we will make a profit, and not a symbolic one from accounting adjustments or from asset sales late in the year." In the first six months of the year, the profit reported in Athens stood at 7.6 million euros.
"In the first six months of my term, I acted primarily as a project manager. We have around 200 projects underway with a major impact on the service quality and on the customer satisfaction, with a large part targeting the retail segment," says Plapcianu.
The bank's subsidiary network increased by 37 branches in the first half of the year, to 226. The corporate image, modelled on that of the Greeks at Eurobank, has only been introduced throughout 70% of the network.
The growth strategy includes network expansion to over 270 subsidiaries by the end of the year, to which 300 mobile sales agents will be added.
"Bancpost's objective is to reach 370 subsidiaries by 2009, while at the same time developing its network of mobile sales agents and electronic channels," says Plapcianu.
Manuela Plapcianu remains wary of branch networks, due to the high costs involved. She does, however, trust the effectiveness of alternative distribution channels.
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