Romanian lender BCR has recently announced that will increase the interest on deposits in RON, EUR and USD by up to 0.5 percentage points, in an attempt to encourage long-term savings and promote lending in RON, in order to reduce risks for banks and customers. These are some of the bank's business priorities for 2012. Interest rates for deposits reached 7 percent for RON, 4.1 percent for EUR and 2.95 percent a year for USD.

Moreover, “given the market developments and emerging prudential regulations, BCR lowers the cost of loans guaranteed in RON” and “removes monthly management fees and introduces a new category of fixed interest rate for 2 years for all guaranteed loans,” reads a statement from the bank. The bank’s costumers that receive their income in a BCR account will get discounts on loan interest and a bonus on interests for deposits.

The main shareholder in local lender BCR is the Austrian Erste Group. According to a decision took in November 2011 by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) and the Austrian National Bank, Austrian banks’ subsidiaries in Romania will not receive support from their main shareholders unless they grow sustainable, local financing through local deposits, local issuance activity and supranational funding. This decision affects Erste Group, Raiffeisen Bank International, shareholder of Raiffeisen Bank Romania and UniCredit Bank Austria, which controls UniCredit Tiriac Bank in Romania.

BCR is the largest bank in Romania by assets, with a 20.5 percent market share. Raiffeisen has a market share of 6.5 percent, while UniCredit Tiriac Bank, of 5.8 percent based on their assets mid-2011.

More about this decision here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Erste Group)