BCR and Erste set up housing bank

S Bausparkasse, the housing savings and loan bank of Erste Bank, is to establish a subsidiary in Romania together with BCR, Astrid Kratschman, head of S Bausparkasse operations in Central and Eastern Europe told ZIARUL FINANCIAR. “We’ve got concrete plans to establish a savings and loan bank together with BCR. We coordinated our efforts with those of our colleagues from BCR in building the business plan and are ready to submit it for the approval of BCR’s and S Bausparkasse’s Boards of Directors,” Kratschman says. She adds that S Bausparkasse has the experience of subsidiary development in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, where it is seeing “substantial” market shares. BCR will focus “more” on potential customers with medium and small incomes. With this in mind it plans to establish a savings and loan bank for housing, to achieve a better analysis of customers based on the experience of Erste Bank, the majority shareholder, Nicolae Danila chief executive of BCR stated yesterday. “The average and below-average customer income area needs the most support, as this is where potential growth may be located in the future,” Danila says. Additionally he believes the state should be more involved in stimulating housing supply. Under the current legislation, the housing savings and loan systems, such as those created by Raiffeisen Banca pentru Locuinte (Raiffeisen Housing Bank) and HVB Banca pentru Locuinte, receive support from the state in the form of a bonus worth 15% of the amount saved by the customer in one year- not exceeding 150 euros.