ING Bank climbs up one place to become fifth-largest lender in Romania

ING Bank, the local branch of the Dutch group ING, has climbed up in the local banks' ranking by assets, reaching the fifth place.

ING has surpassed Raiffeisen Bank Romania, Ziarul Financiar daily reported.

Two years earlier, ING Bank reached the sixth place after surpassing Romanian state-owned lender CEC Bank.

Active on the Romanian market for 25 years, ING Bank has relied on organic growth and digitization. ING Bank Romania reported EUR 9.27 billion of assets at the end of 2019, the equivalent of RON 44.3 bln. ING Bank Romania's assets jumped in 2019 by almost 16%.

Meanwhile, Raiffeisen Bank reported assets of about RON 42.9 bln at the end of 2019, up 7% compared to 2018.

ING Bank recorded RON 781 mln (EUR 163 mln) net profit in 2019, 14% higher than in 2018. In the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, the bank's net profit shrank by about 27% to RON 143 mln (EUR 30 mln), due to the negative impact of the coronavirus crisis.

In mid-2019, Mihaela Bîtu, who has been working at ING Bank for 25 years, was promoted as the bank's CEO, replacing Pole Michal Szczurek, who had led ING Bank Romania for almost seven years. Before that, Mihaela Bîtu had served for about a decade as deputy corporate director of ING Bank.

(Photo: Andreea Constantinescu | Dreamstime.com)