More wealthy Romanians chose to keep and invest their money through the private banking services offered by Erste-owned lender BCR last year. BCR's private banking division managed EUR 941 million for 2,000 clients at the end of last year, a growth of 32 percent in assets and of 29 percent in the number of clients.

The assets managed by BCR Private Banking averaged at EUR 470,000 per client, according to end-2011 data. BCR-Erste Private Banking had EUR 434 million of its clients' wealth placed in investment products.

BCR's Private Banking division is led by Romanian Razvan Furtuna, who has been trading and structuring products on the monetary and capital markets for the last 18 years. The private wealth managers have five teams which cover the whole of Romania.

BCR is the largest bank in Romania by assets, with a 20.5 percent market share.  It is majority owned by Austrian Erste Group.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Sxc.hu)