Banca Transilvania (BVB ticker: TLV), the biggest financial group in Romania by assets, plans to turn the newly-acquired Idea::Bank into the first fully digital Romanian bank.

Banca Transilvania acquired Idea::Bank in October 2021 and has run an integration program of its operations with those of the group.

The restructuring brought long-time BT deputy general director Gabriela Nistor as the new general director of the Idea::Bank. Nistor has been working for Banca Transilvania since 1995, and has been managing the retail and private banking services. She became vice-president of the Romanian Banking Association (ARB) this year. She has an EMBA from Sheffield University.

Nistor’s appointment can be seen as the first step in BT’s plan to transform Idea::Bank into a fully digital bank that targets a ripe remote banking sector.

According to Economedia, previous acquisitions (Volksbank and Bancpost) were motivated by size and were used to consolidate the group’s position on the market, but Idea::Bank is meant to accelerate the group’s digital transformation.

Banca Transilvania was the second most profitable bank in the first quarter of this year, raking in revenues of RON 1 billion (EUR 202 million) and profits of RON 307 million (EUR 62 million), according to Ziarul Financiar. The most profitable local bank was BCR.

(Photo: Patryk Kosmider/ Dreamstime)

radu@romania-insider.com