Romania’s Competition Council and the National Bank of Romania (BNR) gave local lender Banca Transilvania (BT) the go ahead to complete the Volksbank takeover.

Its Austrian parent bank sold Volksbank Romania to Banca Transilvania at the end of 2014. The deal is the biggest in the local banking system in recent years.

“The economic concentration does not raise significant impediment to effective competition on the Romanian market,” the Competition Council said in a press release.

Banca Transilvania plans to finish the transaction in the first half of April. The Romanian bank will then start integrating Volksbank’s operations into its structure.

The new bank would reach a market share of around 13% and would compete with BRD for the second position in the banking system. Banca Transilvania is currently the third largest local bank by assets.

Once the transaction is closed, Banca Transilvania will also announce details of the conversion plan for Volksbank’s clients who have loans in Swiss francs. Volksbank had the second largest portfolio of Swiss franc-denominated loans in Romania, according to BNR data.

Banca Transilvania was the most profitable bank in Romania last year, with a net profit of over EUR 100 million. At the end of 2014, the bank’s total assets reached EUR 7.94 billion (RON 35.6 billion). Its shares trade on the Bucharest Stock Exchange with the ticker TLV, and its market capitalization is EUR 1.24 billion.

No recent public data about Volksbank are available. The two sides haven’t disclosed the value of the deal yet.

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Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com