First automotive bank takes off

Porsche Bank Romania, the first bank to specialise in service packages that include funding, insurance, maintenance and management of client vehicles, is ready to begin operations at the end of this autumn after having recently received an operating licence from NBR.

With a share capital of 370bn ROL, the bank will be officially inaugurated at the end of October. Its core business will focus on granting funds to customers buying vehicles imported by Porsche Romania.

The bank’s majority shareholder is Austrian Porsche Bank, which is based in Salzburg. Austrian Porsche Bank owns 99% of the share capital, the remaining 1% being evenly distributed between Porsche Bank Hungary, Porsche Kredit in Leasing Slovakia, Porsche Biztositasi and Porsche Versicherung Salzburg.

The Porsche Bank Group has branches in Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia. One of its most successful businesses in recent years has been in car rental.

The new institution will provide specialised financial services to complement the services already available from the other members of the Austrian financial group in Romania, Porsche Leasing (started in 1999) and Porsche Broker Asigurari (2002).

Porsche, the importer in Romania of Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda and Porsche, estimates sales of more than 16,000 units this year.

Given the underdeveloped nature of the banking market, there has been a delay in the emergence of specialised credit institutions. It was not until this year that a bank was established that specialised in funding for the buying or building of a home. Similarly, there now exists a so-called electronic currency issuer company offering credits cards based on partnerships with certain retail chains.

Currently there are 40 players on the market. No more new players are expected to enter the banking market before the end of 2004.
razvan.voican@zf.ro