British businessman Dominic Bruynseels effectively took over the duties of chief executive at BCR yesterday, after having travelled extensively throughout the country with Manfred Wimmer in the two months since he was appointed CEO, with a view to understanding the Romanian business model.
The first task of Bruynseels, 48, is to outline a strategy for the development of the bank for the coming years. He replaces Manfred Wimmer at the helm of BCR, the mastermind behind the takeover of the bank by the Austrians at Erste and the man who served as the interim CEO after Nicolae Danila left in December.
Wimmer, 52, was also in charge of coordinating BCR's integration and development programme, which culminated in a set of 42 projects that were implemented to reorganise the bank and bring it up to Erste Bank's standards.
"The foundations have been laid. The first effects are already visible and the road has been paved for Dominic to take the bank further," Manfred Wimmer said yesterday.
The BCR group posted a spectacular rise in profit, 82% in RON, in the first quarter, up to 383 million RON (104 million euros). At the same time, BCR has significantly improved its efficiency, with the cost/revenue ratio going down to 39.7% in the first quarter from 55% in the same time of 2007. BCR remains the leader of the banking system, with 17.5 billion euros in assets in March. BRD, the second-largest player, totalled 11.1 billion euros in assets.
"Over the next three months, we will work together with the specialists of the group to create a development strategy for BCR for the coming period. It won't be next week or next month, but I will come up with a strategy by the end of the year," Dominic Bruynseels said yesterday. After having been appointed chief executive officer of Banca Comerciala Romana by the Supervisory Board in April, he toured the country stopping at the bank's branches in various counties to understand the Romanian business model and market specifics. Bruynseels does not have any experience on the Central and Eastern European markets, but did run the Emerging Markets Unit of the British bank Barclays in Dubai prior to coming to BCR.
"Romania is a country that offers lots of challenges, but also a significant growth potential over the coming years," Bruynseels says.
Although it continued to aggressively develop its network during the integration period, from 450 to 580 branches, BCR has constantly lost a market share on the lending segment, and reached 23% in May from 30% in October 2006. Manfred Wimmer says that this decline was due to the fact that BCR preferred to lose market share on some segments rather than compete "at all costs", and indicated financing for municipalities as an example, where competition from smaller players and providers of cross-border loans is much fiercer.
Decisions on the evolution of market shares across various segments of BCR will be included in the strategy that Bruynseels will outline over the coming months.
Meanwhile, BCR will continue to develop its network, which is set to reach 700 branches in 2009.
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