NBR SOURCES: "The OTP group, interested in Piraeus Bank"

Hungarian banking group OTP is interested in Piraeus Bank, according to some sources of the National Bank of Romania.

Our sources told us: "OTP has entered Piraeus' data chamber. That doesn't mean that they will buy, but they are interested and they are reviewing and analyzing things".

The information comes as the foreign press wrote on Friday that the Hungarians of OTP intend to expand in the countries in which banks with Greek shareholders are present, such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Serbian Republic, as they expect new opportunities to appear in the region.

OTP Bank is not considering expanding its operations to Greece, according to Laszlo Bencsik, the deputy director of the group, as quoted by the Portfolio portal and quoted by Mediafax.

The statement was made in a press conference in which the group announced its financial results.

Laszlo Diosi, the CEO of OTP Bank România, repeatedly said that the lender would be considering new acquisitions after it has completed the integration of Millennium Bank, which is set to happen at the end of this year.

Last week, Nicolae Cinteză, the head of the Oversight Division of the NBR, told us, in an interview, that there would be several mergers on the Romanian banking market. "The decisions, at least, would be made this year. The mergers would be set to happen between the Romanian banks, and the subsidiaries of Greek banks are targeted as well", he told us.

In Romania there are four banks with Greek shareholders - Bancpost, controlled by Eurobank, Banca Românească, which has as its shareholder National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and Piraeus Bank. Together they combine about 12% of the assets of the Romanian banking system.

Even though the four Greek subsidiaries have a very high solvency ratio and a very good liquidity, the other banks in the Romanian banking system have refused to cooperate with them during the Greek crisis, said Nicolae Cinteză, who emphasized: "The four subsidiaries of the Greek banks have been put in a situation where they had to work with each other, because the other banks in the market did not want to cooperate with them. We have been forced to manage liquidity between the banks with Greek shareholders. They needed lei and the other banks were refusing to convert their foreign currency. The Greek subsidiaries had the currency, where the other banks wanted guarantees. What did they need guarantees for? Together with the four banks with Greek capital - some had excess liquidity, others were somewhat within normal parameters - we have directed the excess liquidity between them and everything worked perfectly. We have been congratulated by the EBA for the way we have handled this crisis".

Sergiu Oprescu, the president of the Board of Directors of the Romanian Banking Association and executive president of Alpha Bank, told us that banks with Greek shareholders have gone through the crisis "with their head held high".

The net profit of OTP Bank România fell 33%, in Q1 2015 compared to Q1 2014, from 24.4 million lei to 16.3 million lei, as the operational expenses increased 60%, from 93.7 million lei to 149.8 million lei. The bank has announced that during the reviewed period, its operating profit fell 8%, from 71.2 million lei to 65.3 million lei.

OTP Bank offers financial services in Hungary, Romania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and Serbia, to more than 13 million, through a network of over 1,500 branches, ATMs and electronic channels.