Retail market appeals to ABN AMRO

ABN AMRO Group’s management team in Amsterdam is considering a change in the strategy for the Romanian market: from a bank specialised in services for corporate clients into one that could also operate on certain retail segments. This may be the only way to keep the bank among the top players on the market.

“ABN AMRO sees Romania as a growing market. We believe it is not too late to enter the consumer banking sector, as well. It is an option we are now considering,” Henk Mulder, ABN AMRO Bank Romania president, told Ziarul Financiar. “In case we do it, we’ll do it in a well-targeted manner,” Mulder added.

The Amsterdam officials, however, have delayed making a decision, which could be postponed for the beginning of next year. ABN has been pursuing an organic growth strategy so far, as it displayed no interest in acquisitions, not even in Banca Comerciala Rom=na (Romanian Commercial Bank – BCR).

The step towards the retail market would not be hard to take, considering the bank already has a network comprising 15 branches, opened in the most important cities in the country. But time is money here, as the retail market is rapidly expanding, and the banks controlling significant operations in the field are fully taking advantage of it, with Raiffeisen Bank as the fastest growing of them all. The trend is threatening ABN AMRO’s third leading position on the market (that is if excluding the CEC, whose assets total some 687 million euros and market share reaches about 5%). The market of financial services for companies is fiercely disputed, considering the large number of banks clashing over a small group of clients. This market’s growth potential mainly resides in the small and medium-sized enterprises.

ABN AMRO in May increased its share capital by nearly 6.8 million euros (274bn ROL), with this move possibly related to a future expansion on the Romanian market.

However, Henk Mulder says the increase is not aimed at the change in strategy, but at the development of the offer for the corporate banking segment. ABN Group ranks 10th in Europe and 17th in the world. razvan.voican@zf.ro