Romanian lender BCR has sold so far a total of over two tonnes of gold to its customers, the bank has recently announced. The total value of the gold amounts to some EUR 67 million (RON 300 million), while the average of the most important transactions, by volume, was of over 40 kg of gold per transaction and has been carried out by the private banking division.

“The volume we traded in the recent months has doubled compared to earlier this year,” said Laura Hexan, Head Department Products of Treasury Retail within BCR.

BCR offers its customers the possibility to trade (buy/sell) financial gold, with 99.99 percent purity, since 2009. The gold was traded as ingots and pure gold coins of different sizes and weights. The gold is provided by Austria Mint, a company which sells gold coins and ingots for investors worldwide.

BCR sells gold in any of its units, but only based on preliminary orders, according to the bank. Also, BCR offers gold storage service for quantities of minimum 100 grams. All the ingots traded by BCR meet the London Good Delivery standard, which guarantees their quality.

BCR, owned by Austrian Erste Bank, managed to narrow its losses to some RON 12 million – or EUR 2.7 million – in the first quarter of this year, from a loss of some RON 308 million – or around EUR 70 million in the first quarter of 2012.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com