Piraeus Bank Romania, the local subsidiary of the Greek financing group Piraeus, plans to close down 19 local branches in small and medium cities and one in Bucharest, as the bank wants to focus on bigger cities, the bank announced.

The lender currently has 120 units in Romania. Piraeus is currently trying to relocate the employees affected by this measure.

The restructuring operations are part of a larger optimization plan that has been initiated in 2010. According to sources in the banking sector, Piraeus is up for sale again, reports local Wall-street.ro.

Closing down several branches is part of the plan to make it more attractive for possible investors. Greek group Piraeus negotiated last year the sale of its Romanian subsidiary to American fund JC Flowers, but the transaction didn’t go through because of the high asking price.

editor@romania-insider.com