Bruynseels, BCR: We'll boost lending by 5-6% this year

BCR, the biggest Romanian lender, estimates it will boost its client loan portfolio by 5-6% this year, states Dominic Bruynseels, chief executive of the bank. For 2009, BCR reported a 3.3% loan increase in RON, but in euros the portfolio narrowed by around 211m euros, to 10.9bn euros. Bruynseels says that in 2010 his bank will rely on the “First Home” scheme, on infrastructure investment projects and local authorities’ funding demand. “On the retail segment, we estimate we’ll further benefit from the first home scheme, where we held a market share of above 40% last year. On the corporate segment, we anticipate we’ll further increase our market share after we gained 1.5% in 2009 as expenditures on infrastructure projects are starting to rise and there’s also demand from local authorities, where we have a 70% market share. We see some positive trends and overall we expect our loan portfolio to jump by 5-6% this year,” BCR’s head said.