Porsche Bank assets stagnate at 54m euros

Porsche Bank, the only player on the market specialised in vehicle loans, closed last year with assets worth 54 million euros, a slight decline on December 2006. Last year, total assets in the banking system climbed 45% and reached 250.7 billion RON (around 70 billion euros). The stagnation of Porsche Bank’s assets comes after they saw a 49% increase in 2006 against the previous year. The bank exclusively grants credits for vehicle acquisitions, and finances the working capital and investments of car importer Porsche Romania. At the end of last year, the volume of financing granted by Porsche Bank stood at 34 million euros, of which 43% was in RON, while the rest was in euros and Swiss Francs. Grupul Financiar Porsche (Financial Group Porsche), which consists of the bank, a leasing company and an insurance broker, last year financed 40% of the vehicles sold by the Porsche importer, i.e. just over 20,000 vehicles. “Financial leasing remains the product of choice for those who want to purchase vehicles, because the NBR’s (National Bank of Romania) norms have limited the vehicle loan market,” said Helian Redai, sales and marketing manager at Porsche Bank.