The Romanian banking market, divided among 38 players but with assets worth even less than 15bn euros will see the arrival of two new credit institutions soon, both of which Austria-based: Porsche Bank that specialises in auto loans and Raiffeisen Group's bank that specialises in housing and does not have an official name yet.
Banking sources say a third player might come around by yearend.
Porsche Bank, a subsidiary of Austrian holding Porsche, got a universal bank licence from the National Bank of Romania (NBR), but will focus on its core business, i.e. the funding of the purchase contracts for vehicles sold by Porsche Romania, the importer of Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat. The business of those banks already granting loans for buying the above-mentioned vehicle brands might suffer as a result.
Porsche Romania is the leading car importer, as it sold more than 14,000 cars in 2003.
Porsche Bank's assets totalled 906 million euros at the end of 2002, while its profit was worth 26 million euros. Incorporated in 1966 and based in Salzburg, Porsche Bank has been expanding to Central and Eastern European countries where Porsche Holding sells vehicles through Porsche Leasing as of 1994, i.e. Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia and Romania. Porsche Leasing funds nearly half of the sales of the five vehicle brands in Romania. The bank's financial packages include auto insurance, as well.
Raiffeisen Group's housing bank will be the first financial institution established under Law 541/2002 on collective savings and lending for housing purposes. The bank's shares are equally owned by Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Raiffeisen Bausparkasse - the parent company (Raiffeisen's arm specialising in housing loans) and German bank Schwabische Hall, which also specialises in savings and lending systems for housing purposes. A similar institution project that was supposed to involve Casa de Economii si Consemnatiuni (Romanian Savings Bank - CEC) has been put on hold for quite a while due a number of reasons, without a reactivation deadline set.
The banking market is therefore going to develop its architecture by adding two new segments, which could shake the overall financial market a bit. One problem remains though and that is the unbalanced market where two banks thrive on a hefty slice of almost 45%, while no less than 22 players live off less than 1% each.
Seven banks, most of which subsidiaries of major international groups, settle for 2 to 5% market shares, although many announce bold projects that should lead them to a comfortable 10% - a target not all players could attain even if BCR has actually seen its 30% slice of the market shrink.
razvan.voican@zf.ro
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