Raiffeisen Bank CEO: Romania is a core market for us

Romania is a core market for the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen and has a tremendous potential for growth, being one of the three countries where Raiffeisen wants to grow more than the rest of the group, together with Czech Republic and Slovakia, said Johann Strobl, the new CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). "Our bank in Romania has been successful over the years, and even in the very difficult period of the financial crisis the performance was good. (...) It's not that difficult to do banking in Romania,” he said, reports local Ziarul Financiar. Strobl added that the local lender is interested in an organic growth, but doesn’t exclude possible acquisitions in the future. Raiffeisen Bank Romania, one of the top 5 local lenders, recorded a net profit of EUR 21 million in the first quarter of this year, down 25% year-on-year. The lender also saw its revenues go down year-on-year. Raiffeisen Bank is among the local lenders that will grant the largest dividends this year, together with BRD-SocGen, Banca Transilvania and UniCredit. The bank wants to pay some RON 180 million (EUR 39.5 million) to its shareholders from last year’s profit. Raiffeisen expects Romania to have the fastest credit growth in the region editor@romania-insider.com