Erste Bank notices Romania

Austrian-based Erste Bank is exploring the potential of Romania and Bulgaria, according to the bank’s managing director Andreas Treichl, who would not comment on possible acquisitions on the quoted markets. Erste Bank is planning a repositioning as a Central European bank providing unified services, which can be outsourced to the regional units where costs are lower. This new strategy was prompted by the EU enlargement on May 1, 2004, when ten more countries (most of them former communist states) joined the Union. ZF