Romanian lender BCR turns Bucharest subsidiary into pilot center for machine-only transactions

Romanian lender BCR recently opened its first machine-only subsidiary in Bucharest, in its unit on Calea Victoriei, where customers can deposit and withdraw money, pay bills and use the internet banking facility. The subsidiary on the ground floor of the BCR tower will also have a counseling area, where customers can learn from some BCR consultants about the bank's services. This will be a testing phase and will be expanded in BCR's network depending on the feedback from users. The bank has already bought 400 cash deposit and withdrawal machines which will be installed in its outlets across the country, said Martin Skopek, BCR's vicepresident on retail and private banking. ING Bank has been working almost exclusively with similar multifunctional machines since 2004 in Romania, and the system has been tested by other banks as well, such as UniCredit and Bancpost. BCR is the largest Romanian lender by assets. The group's total assets declined by 0.5 percent in the first nine months of the year, to some EUR 16.8 billion, but still cover some 20 percent of the Romanian banking market. BCR widened its loss to EUR 172 million in the first nine months of this year, after a profit of EUR 16.1 million in the same period of last year. The BCR Group's risk provisions went up considerably, to almost EUR 600 million, an increase of over EUR 200 million. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: BCR's Facebook page)