Răsvan Radu, "Unicredit": Romania has too many universal banks

Răsvan Radu, the executive director of "UniCredit Ţiriac Bank" considers that there are too many universal banks in Romania, and that in the near future we will see the consolidation and specialization of the banks present on the market.

This year, the group intends to focus on the small and medium enterprises (SME), by increasing the volume of lending and by launching new products, in order to increase market share, Răsvan Radu said. On the corporate segment, the lender aims to support the development of the national companies or of those which have the potential to expand to other markets, looking at the sectors where Romania hags a competitive advantage, such as energy, transports, software and agriculture. Also, the banking group will monitor and minimize the risk of its current loan portfolio, according to Răsvan Radu.

Another avenue of action is increasing the volume of European grants and the involvement in the mechanism for their absorption.

Răsvan Radu considers that if banks were to participate as intermediaries in the process for the absorption of the funds, this would lead to a larger ratio of accepted applications, as well as of the repayment requests.

Romania's economy may see a slow recovery this year.

"We do not expect to see a quick recovery of Romania's economy this year either, given the slowdown of the economy in the Eurozone and the rather low level of domestic demand", he said.

These trends will most likely overlap with the challenges concerning the availability of liquidity, of capital, as well as their costs, and the related credit risk increase and the pressure on margins, in a context deprived of opportunities for significant growth, will continue to affect the banks' revenues and profitability, he said. Nevertheless, there are some areas which have high potential, such as the SME and of the projects financed using European funds, the CEO of "UniCredit Ţiriac Bank" said: "UniCredit Ţiriac Bank will develop solutions to benefit from these positive trends and will focus on supporting SMEs and co-financing projects which access European funds. On a structural level, we will encourage lending in lei and we will carefully manage the situation of our financing sources".