Greek banks, a quarter of banking system loans

The seven financial groups present on the Romanian market last December held an overall loan volume worth above 10bn euros, that is a quarter of the total non-governmental loan volume, which had reached almost 41bn euros. The domestic subsidiaries of Greek groups in December operated a network of around 680 units, out of a total of almost 5,500 at the level of the entire system, thus holding a market share of around 12%.
Greek groups are some of the biggest foreign investors in the Romanian banking system, being exceeded (in terms of owned market share) only by Austrian groups controlling two of the top three banks in the system, plus other medium and small-sized players.
Greek financial groups arrived in Romania as early as the ’90s, with Alpha Bank and NBG being among the first foreign investors in the system. Meanwhile, the two have been joined by Eurobank, Piraeus, Emporiki, Egnatia and ATE.
In terms of profitability, Greek groups hold a smaller market share than the one held on the lending segment. Last year, the seven Greek-held banks generated cumulated gross income worth some 115m euros. Data on the incomes derived by the Greek banks are not perfectly comparable as the groups use different information aggregation formats.
The Greek banks’ financial performance was eroded by the expansion plans they carried out. Thus, Alpha Bank, Bancpost, Piraeus or Banca Romaneasca are in full process of territorial network expansion. Small players, such as Egnatia, Emporiki or ATE Bank, which entered the market in 2006, also have ambitious territorial expansion plans.
In terms of the size of their domestic subsidiaries, Greek groups are part of different system categories. The biggest Greek-held players in the system are Bancpost and Alpha Bank, which in December ranked fifth and 7th respectively in terms of owned assets, according to NBR data.
Data collected by ZF from the institutional websites of Greek shareholders show Eurobank has the biggest exposure to the Romanian market. The volume of loans its Romanian subsidiary, Bancpost, granted reached 3.1 million euros in December. Next comes Alpha Bank, with released financing worth 2.72bn euros.