The two Greek owned banks, Bancpost and Banca Romaneasca, will continue to work as independent banks after the merger between their parent banks in Greece was stopped, at the request of external lenders to the Greek state. Eurobank and National Bank of Greece, the two parent banks of the Romanian entities had started the merger procedures in February, and the two Romanian subsidiaries were to also merge. However, under the new decision, the two parent banks will be recapitalized separately.

The merger between the two Greek banks would have led to the largest bank in Greece, with EUR 184 billion in assets, which would have been higher than the country's GDP, and this was one of the reasons the merger was canceled.

In Romania, the merger would have created a bank with EUR 4.2 billion in assets, ranking 7th among local banks, with 5 percent market share. Bancpost and Banca Romaneasca together have 400 units across Romania and some 4,500 employees. The two banks are now ranking 10th and 11th respectively on the Romanian banking system, asset wise.

This is the second failed merger for Bancpost, after a similar attempt to merge with Alpha Bank in 2011-2012.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Arhivafoto.ro)