THE "EUROPEAN BANKING UNION AND THE NEW BANKING MODEL" CONFERENCE / MARINEL BURDUJA, CEO OF THE ROMANIAN BANK FOR LOANS AND INVESTMENTS (BRCI): "Classic products through modern channels - a new banking model"

The Romanian Bank for Loans and Investments (BRCI) wants to bring a new model to the Romanian market, according to Marinel Burduja, its CEO.

According to him, aside from sophisticated banking products, the domestic economy still has room for the classic products: "The new bank with full Romanian equity will focus on this type of traditional banking products, but which will be distributed using very modern banking channels".

The classic products that the official of the BRCI is referring to are those that are non-speculative in nature: "We will not make derivatives in the first stage, nor in the second stage. I want the market to be prepared and we are targeting people who need to have a clear picture of the full transparency of the operations we are conducting".

Marinel Burduja specified that the BRCI represents a collective effort of a group of Romanian investors, which is trying to represent a national model of solidarity, an invitation to other Romanian businesspeople in Romania to extend the range of banks with domestic equity.

According to Mr. Burduja, the new bank will not have an extensive network. "The bank will operate in Bucharest and in a few major cities of the country, such as Constanţa, Ploieşti, Piteşti, Cluj, Oradea, Timişoara, in the first stage, meaning by the end of this year", he told us.

According to Marinel Burduja, the shareholders of the bank did not make it their goal to turn out a profit in the first year of operation of the institution: "My professional ambition is that within a year, we can append to the bank account statement a list of all the costs the customer incurred with their banking services. In the first year, we expect rather significant costs, because we very much want to invest, among other things, in corporate governance, in recruiting good people, in developing a minimal network, but built on adequate foundations. We won't be expecting any kind of profit".

The bank is operational and will begin launching products on the market starting on April 15th.

"For now, we will be an inconspicuous presence on the market", Mr. Burduja concluded, and he said that businessman Dorinel Umbrărescu holds 94-95% of the bank's shares, whereas the remaining equity is owned by several thousand small shareholders.